Re: gaffs

[Robin Turner <robin@BILKENT.EDU.TR>]

>Robin Turner wrote:
>>
>> (a) [Nazi soldiers] were victims, just as surely as the victims in the
>> concentration camps.
>>                                                         Ronald Reagan
(Kahane 1992:33)
>>
Rex wrote:
>
>How is this first one a logical gaffe?
>
IMHO, it's equivocation i.e. playing with definitions.  Jews were victims
in the literal sense of the word; Nazi soldiers in a metaphorical sense
(e.g. "a victim of prejudice/ignorance/brainwashing").  OK, soldiers could
also sometimes be seen as literal victims in that they get shot, but the
word is not normally used to include acitve participants in a war.

>Do Democrats ever make logical gaffes?
>
Of course - all humans do. It's just that the Republican triumvirate of
Reagan, Bush and Quayle provide much more amusing examples.  I imagine if
someone went through Clinton's speeches they would almost certainly find a
few.  I suspect politics is such a rich source of illogicality because it
so often requires people to defend the indispensable.


Robin Turner

Bilkent Universitesi,
IDMYO,
Ankara,
Turkey.

<http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/8309>