Fallacies

Equivocation: February 20, 2015.

I was in the car with my brother and for some weird reason he was driving (I always drive). We were coming up to a street he was supposed to be turning left on and we were having a conversation about what we should do that night. He suggested something that I agreed with and I said "Yeah, right." He then thought I meant for him to turn right when I was just agreeing with what he had said. This was a rather hilarious turn of events (literally).

Appeal to Authority: Feb. 17, 2015.

I woke up to some interesting news on Twitter. A person who was very popular and worked for a prestigious newspaper had reported that there was a huge trade about to be made in the NHL. Assuming the report was true because of the respect I had for this gentleman, I started making assumptions of my own. I talked about the trade with my friends, family and anyone who enjoyed hockey. Later, the report was taken back by the columnist and everything was just said to be a lousy rumour. Note to self: never make assumptions until a deal has been reported as final and not just rumblings that some reporter has overheard.

Appeal to Equality: Feb 16, 2015.

On the break, a hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs made a rather sexist remark. He said "we're not here to be girls about it," referring to the team's practice efforts.

There were multiple articles made about this situation, but I read one that seemed to come of as sexist towards women because it was saying the incident wasn't that big of a deal. Someone, a self proclaimed feminist, took deep offence to this article and I decided to side with them for two reasons. One, I mostly agreed with them. The article could come across as sexist and demeaning to women. Two, well, I am a firm believer of equal rights, and if someone cries wolf about a problem of equality between men and women, I tend to believe everything they say just because I don't want people to think I am an ignorant person.

Now that I look back and have some time to think, the article, though terribly written, wasn't as bad as people were saying it was. Sure it was edgy, but I don't think it deserved all the flack given.