Question

Tom's specific purpose is to convince his audience that texting while driving should not be made illegal. "I'm a really good driver, and I text a lot. I'm a member of my baseball team, on student council, and I go to church regularly." These statements are an example of what kind of fallacy?

Answer 1

Answer:

The Red Herring fallacy

Explanation:

A fallacy is an unsound or misleading argument. There are many types of fallacies, the one that Tom uses is the Red Herring fallacy. This one consists of including an irrelevant issue in an argument in order to mislead and distract the audience from the real issue and abandon it. When Tom mentions that he is a member of the baseball team and that he goes to church regularly, he is adding irrelevant information on the real issue, which it's to prove why texting while driving should not be made illegal. This way, Tom aims to distract his audience from the real topic and abandon the original argument.