Straw Examples
An IllAdvised Opinion on some bad examples
The other day I was listening to a popular legal podcast (Note: Not as opposed to an ‘illegal’ podcast) when the not-host, speaking about an egregious anti-first amendment case… which of course he supported… made the following simile:
The case of The Twitter Troll , was *like*, he said, a man who came up to voters waiting to vote, looked like an election official, handed them out a piece of paper which contained false information on how to vote and which let them go home early, and as a result some of them tried it. And except for all of the important facts, it was indeed exactly like that!
So, to start with… it did not involve people standing in line to vote. He shared it on his own twitter feed. So if we are going to be ‘like’ here, it would be like him standing in his own yard.
Oh, and it did not involve people standing in line to vote… this tweet went out to everyone.
Oh, and it didn’t involve any official looking piece of paper. It was posted… and I think I’ve said this… on his own, personal, twitter feed.
Oh, and it didn’t involve an official looking piece of paper. It involved a fake ‘Vote for Hillary’ ad!
Oh, and while we have a number of people who texted in… we have no idea how many of them didn’t actually vote! This was days before the actual election, they could have realized how stupid they were and gone and voted. In fact, because the text wouldn’t have involved like, their actual name, they could have gone and voted, thinking they were voting twice!
So, to conclude, the problem with this example is it misses every single point. So let me try this. Suppose that the podcaster had said, “This is like a man who put a ‘Vote for Hillary’ sign in his front yard. And on that sign it also said, “Skip the line on voting day, Text ‘Win’ to 888-88ForHillary. And let us suppose that a bunch of idiots did so. Should that man go to jail?” Whether you would answer yes or no, you have at least put the question correctly. You have not Straw Exampled.