Dear friend.
Imagine him receiving that message has been the only happiness in my life. I don't know you, nor do you know me, but if fate has allowed you to find my message, it's because you need to know about me and help, if not me, other victims like me.
I find myself trapped in the basement of the sadistic, mad, murderous General Zaroff. I arrived here after my ship wreck survived. I came in search of help, but I only received despair and panic. The general hunts me like an animal, plotting my death all the time. I can no longer sleep, and control my nerves, I live on the edge of insanity all the time and I believe that my days of life will be short if I remain here, or if I throw myself into the sea, trying in vain to escape my captivity.
I'm afraid of suffering at the hands of Zaroff, I'm afraid of a slow and painful death, but my biggest fear is that this rascal will get away with his actions.
Please take this letter to the authorities and help an unfortunate person like me.
We are all equal, and there is no discrimination between us. We all have rights and can pursue happiness whenever we want. The people own these rights, not the government. The government will only cares about our safety and happiness. Did that help? Hope it did!
Answer:
1. Ad hominem- Our current mayor has been in politics for over 25 years. It is time that we have a younger mayor, so we can have fresh ideas to make our city better.
2. False Analogy- Driving to work instead of using public transportation is like not eating everything on your plate. It wastes valuable resources.
3. False Dilemma- Increasing our city's debt to improve our roads is better than letting all our cars be destroyed because of all the potholes.
4. Red Herring- It is true that the city council did approve a tax for a new road construction project. However, our city needs to attract more businesses to stabilize our economy.
Explanation:
Ad hominem is a form of fallacy where the person is attacked instead of the argument he presents. In the above example, the current mayor is presented as not having fresh ideas and this deviates from the argument of him being in office for over 25 years.
False Analogy identifies similarities between two concepts that are used to draw further conclusions. Similarities are drawn between driving to work and not eating everything on a plate.
A False dilemma occurs only when two choices are presented when there are other options to choose from. Apart from increasing the city's debt, there could have been other ways to prevent the roads from being destroyed by potholes.
Red herring is a topic that distracts from the main subject being discussed. The subject which is the approval of a road construction project was distracted from.
