Thursday, February 4, 2016

Trump's Hasty Generalization

In these past presidential debates, all candidates have resorted to various logical fallacies to support their arguments at some point, some more than others. For instance, the billionaire entrepreneur, Donald Trump, falls victim to using logical fallacies quite often. 

One of the many striking quotes from Trump's candidacy announcement was, 

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.” 

This is an example of hasty generalization. The logical fallacy of hasty generalization means that the audience jumps to a conclusion with little to no evidence to support their conclusion. Trump assumes that the majority of Hispanics are either rapists, drug mules, or criminals in general, where in fact, he has no evidence to support his audacious accusations. Not only is he assuming that Mexico is deliberately sending over illegal immigrants, he is also presuming their criminal status without any validation for his claims. 

2 comments:

  1. I agree with you and I do not like how Trump has been making such generalizations about major groups of people with such little knowledge about their situations. It makes America seem ignorant for letting this continue.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you and I do not like how Trump has been making such generalizations about major groups of people with such little knowledge about their situations. It makes America seem ignorant for letting this continue.

    ReplyDelete