This Isn't and Is Us
I was recently at a local vigil held in memory and honor of those killed at Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh. During that vigil, one of the speakers said, "This is not who we are." Speaking of the hate mongering, violent killers, the point was that the rhetoric, the anger, the racism does not reflect the populace. Unfortunately, it does . I am not suggesting that it represents the majority. But the fact that it exists points to the fact that somewhere, lurking, are these ideologies and feelings. If this wasn't truly us, this would not have happened, nor would it have been conceivable. What we run into is a fallacy sometimes called the "True Scotsman" fallacy or a fallacy of circular reasoning. It is a way of reinterpreting evidence or claims in order to prevent the refutation of a stated position. It works like this: A Scotsman reads in the paper and sees that a terrible murder took place in England. The Scotsman says, "No S...