Red herring: "Black fur and glowing red eyes.... Skunk Ape's most obvious character is its terrible odor" The article goes on to disprove this by saying that many of these sightings can be black bears standing on two legs. bears rummaging through the trash can be the cause of the "odor"
Appeal to misleading authority: "....received a letter from an anonymous woman. With the letter were two attached photographs of what the woman said was an escaped orangutan who had been stealing apples from her back porch for three nights." This lady really had no idea what kind of creature was off her back porch. renowned cryptozoologists don't think that this creature is an orangutan.
Hasty Generalization:
- A bear of some sort that rummages through trash. Although, this would mean that the original sighting was a hoax, as fingers are visible on the Skunk Ape in that photograph, not claws.
Can you really make a judgement call based on the fact that it has fingers? It could be an escaped gorilla?
Based on your fallacies, I’d say that your article is really arguing the fact that this creature doesn’t exist. A lot of your examples seem to be disproving the existence of the skunk ape. Your fallacies reflect this and would fit with the premise of Values ‘Abstract’ / ‘Universal’. Pragmatic might fit too because they are evaluating each witness account and breaking it down to oh it couldn’t exist because it’s probably a bear, giving it negative consequences.
ReplyDeleteI would push your argument more towards the fact that this Crypt animal is more based off speculation and common folklore, as you stated this might be an escaped gorilla or that simply everyone sees the shadow of a "big animal'. They never get a clear view on what exactly is the thing they are looking at, so one does what humans do, assume. Good job on the analysis
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