Life, Liberty, and the

Pursuit of Fallacy
Alexa Otlin, Julia Omolo, Kayla Cook, & Sammy Quiroz
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Why FDR?
Served far longer than any other president (12 years)
Huge support from his country to be elected 4 times
Created The New Deal, which guided America through a huge
domestic crisis (Great Depression) and helped develop it into a
world Superpower.
Created millions of jobs in the Great Depression (History.com,
2010)
Excellent communicator (Fireside Chats),
Used metaphors that all American people could
understand.
Understood his audience
He understood the people of Americas Cultural Legacy
throughout the Great Depression. He understood their
fear and anxiousness for the country, and used the Fire
Side Chats to address this effectively
Outliers Chapter 6: Harlan, Kentucky
Summary:
Chapter 6 starts off by describing a mountain town (Harlan) in which two families, the Howards
and Turners, constantly fought. Gladwell reveals several other occurrences in which towns from the
Appalachians had constant feuds.
Generations later, the same aggressive behavior is still seen. For example, an experiment tested
rage in southerners and northerners. Southerners responded in an aggressive way to protect their
honor in a similar way that the Harlan townspeople fought aggressively to protect their honor.
Why is this happening?
Gladwell concluded that the reason for the feuds in the mountains is due to an
ancestral cultural legacy of honor, distinctive to the American South and
Appalachians. The importance of the legacy (honor, in the case of Kentucky) is
passed down from generation to generation in a similar way that family traits are
passed down. This is why southerners currently still display the same cultural
legacy of honor.
Whats the point?
Gladwell calls people to recognize the cultural legacies of people around us, and to
see how cultural legacies can affect a persons capabilities and tendencies.
Xenophobia: Alexa
Xenophobia can be described as an intense fear of those from a different group.
This is most commonly thought of as a fear of people from different countries.
Although this is one definition, it can also include the fear of different groups in
general, not just from a different country.

Real Life Example: The way Donald Trump refers to immigrants can make him
come off as xenophobic. When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their
best theyre sending people that have lots of problems and theyre bringing those
problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime, theyre rapists.
This is just one example of many of Trump making xenophobic comments towards
immigrants and people from Mexico. This is xenophobia because it shows Trumps
irrational fear of those from a different/certain group, in this case immigrants and
Mexicans.
Reductionism Fallacy: Julia
Reductionism- Assuming a single simple cause/reason of an outcome,
when there were actually multiple causes or reasons.

Real Life Example- Jill hit a pedestrian while in her car and got a ticket.
She blamed it on the person jaywalking.
Hidden Facts- Jill actually ran a red light while talking on her
phone, keeping her distracted from the road.
Cause of violence reduced to ancestors and Culture of Honor.
Culture of honor a mans reputation is at the center of his livelihood and self worth
(Gladwell 2008)
Other benefactors- Living in a small secluded town, town
courts allow it.
The Plain Truth Fallacy: Kayla
The Plain Truth
A fallacy of logos favoring familiar or easily comprehensible data, examples and evidence over that which is
more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth. (Williamson, 2016).
Real Life Example
There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world.
We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life
expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force,
and number four in exports. (The Newsroom, 2012)
Using plain-to-see statistical data to show that it is the plain truth that America is no longer the
greatest, when there could be other factors that makes a country great
(After having listed 5 previous mountain feuds) these were just the well-known feuds. The Kentucky legislator
Harry Caudill once looked in a circuit court clerks office in one Cumberland Plateau town and found
one thousand murder indictments...What was the cause of the Appalachian pattern? a culture of
honor. (Gladwell, 2008).
Using plain-to-see examples of how these examples and telling the audience what these
examples obviously mean. Its the plain truth that the feuds were caused by a culture of
honor
The Plain Truth Fallacy: Kayla

Easily comprehensible data

to explain something
complex

Its simple; America wants

GMOs labeled.
The Red Herring Fallacy: Sammy
The Red Herring Fallacy
Attempting to redirect the argument to another issue that to which the person doing the
redirecting can better respond. (Logically Fallicious) a deliberate diversion of attention with
the intention of trying to abandon the original argument.
Real Life Examples:
Often used in political debates to subtly change the course of the question and move it in a
direction that makes the candidate look better
In 2007, George W. Bush used this in a debate with John Kerry. asked about job loss.
What would Bush say to someone who has lost his job? Bush began by promising to
"continue to grow our economy" and then, subtly, changed course. Suddenly, Bush
was talking about education, specifically his signature No Child Left Behind legislation.
"I went to Washington to solve problems," he explained. "And I saw a problem in the
public education system." (NPR)
Video

https://youtu.be/fFGKjq_jjJ8
The Rest of our Videos
Alexa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ4qXMx0tT4

Julia: https://youtu.be/-8vqJMbBMMI

Sammy: Sammy's Video

Works Cited
"Franklin D. Roosevelt." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

"Franklin D. Roosevelt | Wikiwand." Wikiwand. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

<http://www.wikiwand.com/hu/Franklin_D._Roosevelt>.

"Franklin D. Roosevelt Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.

<http://www.biography.com/people/franklin-d-roosevelt-9463381#political-beginnings>.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Harlan, Kentucky. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Little, Brown, 2008. 161-76. Print.

History.com Staff. "The Fireside Chats." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.

<http://www.history.com/topics/fireside-chats>.

"How Politicians Get Away With Dodging The Question." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.
Works Cited
"Seven GMO Infographics You May Have Missed - Organic Authority." Organic Authority. Organic Authority Inc., 09 Nov. 2013.

Web. 13 Sept. 2016. <http://www.organicauthority.com/foodie-buzz/7-gmo-infographics-you-may-have-missed.html>.

"The New Deal." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2016.

The Newsroom. Dir. Gregg Motolla and Alan Poul. Perf. Jeff Daniels. The Newsroom. HBO, 2012. Web. 13 Sept. 2016

Walsh, Kenneth T. "FDR: The President Who Made America Into a Superpower." U.S. News and World Report. U.S. News and

World Report, 10 Apr. 2015. Web. 14 Sept. 2016.

<http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/ken-walshs-washington/2015/04/10/fdr-franklin-delano-roosevelt-made-america-into

-a-superpower>.

Williamson, Owen M. "Master List of Logical Fallacies." Master List of Logical Fallacies. The University of Texas at El Paso,

2016. Web. 13 Sept. 2016. <http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/engl1311/fallacies.htm>.