Links to rhetorical tools:

Here are links to the rhetorical tools used in this class:

Schemes & Tropes -- Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca -- Fallacies -- Burke -- Rhetorical Toolbox -- Conspiracy Rhetorics

Thursday, February 8, 2018

#sorrynotsorry

"Stop calling abortion a 'difficult decision'"

I know, I know... yet another discussion about abortion.
#sorrynotsorry

Abortion is a VERY touchy subject, I'm sure for us all, but it is also a VERY important topic to discuss. I for one have a very unpopular opinion about it, pro choice, which is why this article stood out to me. I feel that it is worth discussing.

In short, the article discusses the use of the words 'difficult decision'. It has a very feminist feel, I think, and I like that side. It discusses that "when the pro-choice community frames abortion as a difficult decision, it implies that women need help deciding, which opens the door to paternalistic and demeaning “informed consent” laws. It also stigmatizes abortion and the women who need it." I'm sure we all know the arguments very well and I won't go too much into it at the moment.

I feel that arguments like these are very based on consequences of a belief. This fallacy is called appeal to consequence. One's beliefs are effecting the argument. I mean it's true. The things we believe to be true in our hearts are things we feel we need to defend. And these are typically things we all get intensely heated over. I for one feel like there is no right or wrong answer. In this article, the author, obviously female, shares her personal story about how getting her abortion was not a difficult decision at all. So the fallacy is right there out in the open. It is truly her belief that she is pro choice and that people need to stop saying that it is a 'difficult decision for women'.

I also feel that a lot of people rely upon expert opinion when drawing conclusions where we lack the time or expertise to form an informed opinion. This fallacy is referred to as ad Verecundiam. There is a lot of things about getting medical opinions and statistical data in this article. This appeals to the ad Verecundiam fallacy because a lot of us feel we need to get the "experts" opinion on the subject to make a decision on how we feel about it. Or even the lawmakers opinion. What counts as murder? What is good for mom and/or baby? People are heavily relying on authority before them make a decision for themselves.

As stated before, abortion is a heavy subject. I think that all political subjects are touchy. We are all opinionated humans and that's just the kind of world we live in. Just as my dad says, "opinions are like belly buttons, we all have one, and they all stink." Politics are FULL of all kinds of fallacies and it's very easy to see this, whether we look at it based on opinion, or based on looking how it is argued. Soooooooo... again... #sorrynotsorry

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stop-calling-abortion-a-difficult-decision/2014/08/15/e61fa09a-17fd-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html?utm_term=.1dc2f9d2fa8c

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