JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: A FINE EXAMPLE OF A LOGICAL FALLACY CALLED THE STRAW-MAN ARGUMENT – SOMETHING USED SO OFTEN IN PROPAGANDA – THE GREATNESS OF CANADA’S PIERRE TRUDEAU

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS

 

“Pierre Trudeau was a remarkable man, but not Canada’s national saviour

“100 years after former prime minister’s birth, fact and fiction about his legacy collide”

 

“Pierre Trudeau was a remarkable man, but not Canada’s national saviour”

 

Yes, Pierre Trudeau was a remarkable man, and a man of many large accomplishments.

One of our greatest leaders, for sure.

But who ever claimed he was “a national saviour”?

I’ve not even seen the expression used before.

What we have here is essentially what logicians call “a straw man argument.”

It succeeds in knocking down something that had no substance in the first place.