Can you outsmart the fallacy that started a witch hunt? - Elizabeth Cox — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:10Ah, a witch hunt.
2. 0:12Humans are tireless in their pursuit of reason.
3. 0:16"It’s 1950.
4. 0:18Following threats from the communist governments of the Soviet Union and China,
5. 0:23anti-communist sentiment in the United States is at an all-time high.
6. 0:27Senator Joseph McCarthy claims he has a list of 205 communists in the US
7. 0:34who are influencing government policy."
8. 0:38Didn’t I just change the channel?
9. 0:41Ah, I see. It’s a different witch hunt.
10. 0:44"The senate forms a committee to investigate McCarthy’s claims.
11. 0:48McCarthy names his first case:
12. 0:50against prominent lawyer, judge, and activist Dorothy Kenyon.
13. 0:55He accuses her of membership to 28 organizations that are communist fronts.
14. 1:01Newspapers around the country rush to her defense,
15. 1:03pointing out her vocally anti-communist record.
16. 1:07The senate committee schedules a hearing anyway,
17. 1:10and she has just five days to prepare."
18. 1:14This is too much.
19. 1:16If the government won’t be a voice of reason, I’ll have to.
20. 1:30That’s better.
21. 1:31I’m surprised you good legislators have agreed to move this hearing forward.
22. 1:36You’re falling prey to a type of argument from ignorance:
23. 1:39assuming that a claim is true because it hasn’t been proven false.
24. 1:44The claim being Senator McCarthy’s accusations against Judge Kenyon,
25. 1:48for which he provided no legitimate evidence.
26. 1:52Is that right? I thought so.
27. 1:55Some of the so-called communist organizations he accused her of joining
28. 2:00don’t even exist.
29. 2:02To assume a claim is true because it hasn’t been proven false
30. 2:07ignores many other possibilities:
31. 2:10that it hasn’t been proven false yet, that it can’t be proven true or false,
32. 2:14or that it isn’t completely true or completely false, to name a few.
33. 2:19This leads to a handy rule of thumb:
34. 2:22the burden of proof lies with the person making the claim.
35. 2:25In other words, you make the claim, you supply the proof.
36. 2:30If someone told you aliens exist,
37. 2:33would you head off to find proof that they don’t exist?
38. 2:36Of course not.
39. 2:37You’d tell that person to show you the UFO.
40. 2:42The same applies when someone makes a claim
41. 2:44that contradicts an established consensus.
42. 2:47So when all the available evidence suggests
43. 2:50that humans are causing an increase in global temperatures,
44. 2:54the burden of proof has been fulfilled—
45. 2:56if you disagree, it becomes your responsibility to prove otherwise.
46. 3:03Right?
47. 3:06Ah, I’ve gotten ahead of myself.
48. 3:08You’ll see what I mean soon enough.
49. 3:11Anyway, your legal system supposedly recognizes this rule—
50. 3:15so what are you all doing here?
51. 3:25"It’s July 17th, 1950,
52. 3:28and the senate subcommittee has officially dismissed all charges against Kenyon."
53. 3:33As they should!
54. 3:34"It’s 1954, and the senate has formally disciplined McCarthy."
55. 3:40Took them long enough!
56. 3:41"He will serve out the rest of his term,
57. 3:43but will never again be elected to a public office.
58. 3:46Because of his widespread anti-communist influence,
59. 3:50hundreds of people have been incarcerated, and thousands have lost their jobs."
60. 3:59Ah! Look what the communists did!