Logical Fallacies abound

Cecily had a piece today about calling in Gay and references the recent Jon Stewart/Mike Huckakbee interview on the Daily Show. The whole interview is good, but the second half deals mostly with gay marriage.

Overall, this was a civil, dare I say gentlemanly discourse! Sure, Jon Stewart takes full advantage of his venue and makes it hard sometimes for Huckabee to get a word in, but overall their discourse was enjoyable to watch and I came away with the feeling that these two, although vehemently disagreeing on probably mostly everything, could still sit down and have a piece of pie and cup of coffee together. And that was refreshing to me because most online discussions among women NEVER go that well.

Nonetheless, I don’t think either Huckabee or Stewart really made a strong case, because both were relying for the most part on logical fallacies. Huckabee seemed to rely on Appeals to the Majority for his argumentation. For one brief shining moment he almost started going down a Theology of the Body path, but… well this is the Daily Show and there are time constraints and I don’t think the Daily Show is conducive to that kind of deep analysis. So I found Huckabee’s arguments unsatisfying.

But Stewart didn’t do much better. He had many Appeals to Emotion, and given that he was appealing to a liberal, New York crowd, that probably played well in the studio, but the hoops and hollers were disruptive for me as a television audience member. He also used Appeal to Ridicule and Poisoning the Well as far as biblical arguments go. So his arguments were unsatisfying and not compelling as well.

Kudos to both guys though for the refreshing civility in their discussion. Overall it was a pleasure to watch.

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