Health Editor’s Note: We are seeing too much of this jumping on the bandwagon crap. If we have ever needed a time to think for ourselves, use wise judgement, even if it means we are ‘different’ than our neighbors, friends (or maybe former friends), and/or family members, it is now! Do what is right for everyone. Use your brain for what it was intended to be used for. Look, listen, analyze real sources of information, and if you do not see zebras do not make them up.
Prime examples “The otherworldly presidential political race” towards the November election comes to mind. How about the Trumpable recommendations for treating and keeping free of COVID-19? Jumping on that bandwagon killed a few and made others sick.
How about the crazy town bandwagon of people who believe or say they believe there is no such thing as coronavirus? That the numbers of cases and deaths from COVID-19 are made up, figments of our imagination even as we know people who work daily to take care of those who have contracted coronavirus. They are witness to the deaths caused by COVID-19. Yes, the COVID-19 nonbelievers/deniers would have you believing that COVID-19 facts and news are being used to control us.
Now we can look at the protests that bring people together without masks, screaming, without physical distancing, etc. due to Governors of some states making the ‘wearing of face masks mandatory’ when outside the home and in a public place. Protestations of loss of ‘civil’ rights when all that is being attempted is to stop at least some of the spread of COVID-19, which has long since reached pandemic proportions and has killed over 183,000 Americans. People in America are not being placed under house arrest and can move freely around their communities. Americans have not lost any civil rights.…..Carol
What is the Bandwagon Fallacy?
by Richard Nordquist/Thought.Co
Bandwagon is a fallacy based on the assumption that the opinion of the majority is always valid: that is, everyone believes it, so you should too. It is also called an appeal to popularity, the authority of the many, and argumentum ad populum (Latin for “appeal to the people”). Argumentum ad populum proves only that a belief is popular, not that it’s true. The fallacy occurs, says Alex Michalos in Principles of Logic, when the appeal is offered in place of a convincing argument for the view in question.
- “Carling Lager, Britain’s Number One Lager” (advertising slogan)
- “The Steak Escape. Americas Favorite Cheesesteak” (advertising slogan)
- “[Margaret] Mitchell enhanced the GWTW [Gone With the Wind] mystique by never publishing another novel. But who would be so churlish as to want more? Read it. Ten million (and counting) Americans can’t be wrong, can they?” (John Sutherland, How to be Well Read. Random House, 2014)
Hasty Conclusions
“Appeals to popularity are basically hasty conclusion fallacies. The data concerning the popularity of the belief are simply not sufficient to warrant accepting the belief. The logical error in an appeal to popularity lies in its inflating the value of popularity as evidence.” (James Freeman [1995), quoted by Douglas Walton in Appeal to Popular Opinion. Penn State Press, 1999)
Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.
She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.
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