The Straw Man
In the science of critical thinking, the building of a Straw Man in argumentation is the building of a caricature or distortion of someone’s position in order to attack more easily an opposing view. This happens all the time whenever there is a matter in dispute. I see this happen in the “Gay” movement and in the Evolution versus Creationism debate.
It most certainly is true, almost unavoidably so, in the “Legal/Illegal Mexican migrant worker” debate.
This is true of the Minuteman-like groups and the “pro-Legal/Illegal Mexican migrant worker supporters” because both groups, those on both sides of the fence, resort to some outstandingly insane arguments because of the stereotypes both hold about each other’s position.
“Some” within the Minuteman-like groups sincerely believe the “Legal/Illegal Mexican migrant workers” are nothing but…
1. drug runners.
2. murderers.
3. men who want to rape your daughters.
4. people who want to rape, rob, and pillage you.
5. people who want to close your hospitals.
6. people who have run Americans out of countless cities and communities.
7. people who have trashed school systems.
8. people who have thrown trash throughout the park systems.
9. people who have brutalized our schools with their language.
They also sincerely believe only the ignorant and uninformed has to have some liberal agenda to ruin the United States by not accepting the Minuteman-like group’s position against “Legal/Illegal Mexican Migrant workers”.
Another example of the Straw Man from one of my readers,
“Why would you want to live in a country where its President is exporting its sick, its poor, and its criminals?”
This guy made some huge leaps in logic that were essentially the Straw Man argument. He created a caricature he could more easily attack rather than deal with the contentions of the actual debate.
To be fair, there are some equally stupid arguments on the “Pro-Legal/Illegal Mexican Migrant Worker” side of the fence.
For them to resort to believing “all of the Minuteman-like group members”without exception–are nothing but a bunch of redneck, xenophobic, racists is also building a Straw Man.
Do you recall in my last column where I mentioned the only thing that can cut through the “cock and bull” of any disputed issue is the “test of experimentation”?[1]
My whole point, in all my writings on this issue, has been this. I do not believe, in the slightest, the nine points I outlined above, are true of ALL “Legal/Illegal Mexican Migrant Workers” because without the application of Phony-Baloney Detection Lesson #2 these claims are speculative nonsense!
(I would add that I have had those within the Minuteman-like groups tell me that ALL “Legal/Illegal Mexican Migrant Workers” indeed fit the nine points I have included above.)
“Without the test of experimentation, without an objective third party (peer review) reproducing the so-called expert’s proof then all the “expert” is presenting to you in his truckloads of “statistical hogwash” is SPECULATION!
It is not proof. It is nothing more, nothing less, than SPECULATION!”[2]
Straw Man arguments are ALWAYS inevitable when you do not follow Phone-Baloney Detection Lesson #2!
If there is no “test of experimentation” the only alternative is to use your speculative statistics, no matter how many you quote, to build a STRAW MAN.
Reliable, Non-Straw Man statistics issue forth from the process of,
1. observation
2. hypothesis
3. prediction
4. testing, and the attempt to reproduce steps 3 and 4 used to form a theory (the last step of the scientific method).
Anything less is nothing but “Cock and Bull.”
Allow me to make an application of this Phony-Baloney Detection Lesson #3:
The Minuteman-like groups know how to win this debate when the parameter of the debate is kept within the framework of “the mountain of speculative statistics” versus the “Pro-Legal/Illegal Migrant Mexican Workers” supporters. The Minuteman-like folks want to keep the debate framed within those parameters.
And, herein lies the rub:
They will point out that so-and-so was killed by a Mexican illegal. They will point out each and every crime, from rape to murder, they can possibly muster in their truckload of stats. They will try to divert discussion away from the real issue with these statistical events they quote.
The fact that indeed horrible crimes have been perpetrated by “SOME” illegal and legal foreigners is certainly indisputable.
But what does this mean? Does this mean that all Mexicans are inherently evil people? Or does this mean that whenever you have large groups of ANYONE from ANYWHERE in ANYPLACE that you are going to have SOME who do evil things?
The Minuteman-like folks are constantly trying to divert attention away from the fact that not ALL “Legal/Illegal Mexican Migrant Workers” are evil cutthroats who goes around shooting Sheriff’s deputies and raping women by quoting the stats of those incidents where some have done these evil acts.
Let me ask you this:
If my friend Chelly, who just finished her degree in linguistics, went to the U.S. legally and then through simple negligence allowed her visa to expire and was suddenly illegally in the U.S., what would that make her? Would she suddenly become all those things that I outlined above in points 1-9? Would she suddenly go from a “good” Mexican to an “evil” Mexican?
Chelly asked me this question when I told her how Mexicans are regarded in the United States.
What shall I tell my friend Chelly?
[1] Phony-Baloney Detection Lesson #2; by Doug Bower
[2]
Doug Bower is a freelance writer, Syndicated Columnist, and book author. He is a columnist with Cricketsoda.com and the Magic City Morning Star, and more than 21 additional online magazines. He lives with his wife in Guanajuato, Mexico. His newest books, Mexican Living: Blogging it from a Third World Country and The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico can be seen:
