Fallacies, Deadly Sins, Muslim Terrorism, and Liar Detectors

In chapters 15 and 16 of Thank You For Arguing, new topics were introduced to me. The subject of fallacies was one of them, although that was in chapter 14. I have heard people close to me talk about fallacies multiple amounts of times and whenever I asked them what those were, they simply wouldn't know how to explain those to me. That's why I'm so glad I now know what they are. I think that fallacies are very interesting, and I know I've said this before, but I have already seen them in casual argumentation without even knowing. It is in chapter 15 where the "seven deadly logical sins" are explained. Making allusion to the seven deadly sins in Christian ethics, these logical sins "aren't 'wrong,' since rhetoric has no real rules. They simply make deliberative argument impossible…they lie out of bounds" (p. 240). The seven deadly logical sins, exactly as they appear in the book, are: 
1. Switching tenses away from the future 
2. In flexible insistence on the rules (using the voice of God, or refusing to hear the other side) 
3. Humiliation (argument done only to humiliate, not to make a choice) 
4. Innuendo (if you object to it, you can look like a fool) 
5. Threats 
6. Nasty language or signs 
7. Utter stupidity 

 These tools are very useful in everyday life. For example in this video, Bill O'Reilly manages to spot a fallacy when Jon Stewart makes a statement about Muslim terrorism. Jon Stewart says, "Let's say that somebody commits an act of terror…and we took their whole religion…and we lump them in for special singling out." O'Reilly immediately spots the all natural fallacy. This fallacy assumes that members of the same family share the same traits. O'Reilly then stops him and clarifies that he's talking about "An act of terror, not 14,600 acts of terror." The family in this situation would be the Muslim community and the fact that one individual from that family committed an act of terrorism doesn't make all the other members of that family terrorists. That's why people shouldn't assume that all Muslims are terrorists, or that all terrorists are Muslims. 

 Finally, in chapter 16 it talks about knowing how much you should trust someone's trustworthiness and sincerity. Heinrichs talks about this by saying that there are two main liar detectors: the needs test (which measures disinterest) and the extremes test (which measure virtue). All of this is provided through ethos. 

 To finalize, here are the vocab words that I learned in these chapters: 

Clobber: (verb) to hit (someone) hard

Eponym: (noun) a person after whom
a discovery. invention, place, etc., is
named or thought to be named.

Savvy: (noun) shrewdness and practical
knowledge esp. in politics or business.