Daily Archives: July 27, 2015

The Lack of Logic: Huckabee and S.E. Cup

Today on CNN S.E. Cup, a right-wing commentator, defended Mike Huckabee’s comment that Obama is marching Israelis to “the door of the oven” by agreeing to the Iran nuclear deal. She stated that Huckabee was correct because the right’s already assumed failure of the nuclear deal would mean that Israeli Jews would be killed in mass. This is an example of the media and journalism school’s failure to make students take more logic classes. More importantly, this lack of logic and the dismal failure of the media to conduct a serious debate is why folks get so aggravated with politics. The aggravation comes from the lack of closure due to popular rhetoric’s failure to utilize the tools of logic.

In the case of S.E. Cup she should have been challenged by the CNN interviewer on her logic. Using S.E. Cup’s logic we could also say the Republicans are leading the Israeli Jews to the oven because when the right kills the nuclear deal and Iran develops a bomb in two months as experts, including Netanyahu have predicted, the right will have enabled Iran to drop the bomb on Israel. By her own logic, the right could be called be Nazi fascists for killing the nuclear deal. This flawed logic can be used for or against the Republicans. The flaw here is that assumptions are hypothetical. We could equally argue that unicorns are overpopulating and rednecks should have an open season on them. Just because the right believes some hypothetical outcome strongly does not make their logic correct. They may assess probabilities differently in which case their assessments need to come into detailed question with the facts not the hyperbole.

In my opinion, The bigger issue goes back to Kant: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law”. If S.E. Cup’s maxim about the fascist left is true based on her assumption about the nuclear deal, integrity would dictate that it would also be true about the right if they kill the deal and Israel gets nuked. Folks today are all too willing to hurl their maxims on everyone else but too often can’t take it when their logic is turned back on themselves. Kant’s categorical imperative should be called integrity and that is all too often missing in rhetorical dialog.

I have many other current topics I would like to pursue these days but alas, my software work and taking care of my 92 year old dad at home leave me little time these days.