Logical Fallacies of Popular Websites, Essay Example

Logical fallacies on blogs are very common, and they can create a feeling in readers that the reasoning is truthful and real, while it is not. Below two articles will be reviewed to reveal the logical fallacies.

“Tomatoes are poisonous!” – From http://www.tomatoesareevil.com/

The author of the post states that “tomatoes are poisonous”. He tries to back up his statement with some facts that do not confirm the statement, only relate to it. The logical fallacy in this piece is that:

“The tomato is closely related to the botanical genus Solanum, to which belong many poisonous species”(Tomaties are Evil, para 3). Tomatoes are poisonous.

The author commits a logical fallacy, as being related to poisonous species is not evidently resulting in being poisonous.

There is another logical fallacy that can be spotted in the same text:

“For a long time tomatoes were not eaten by Europeans but grown as ornamental plants and considered fit only for wild animals”(Tomatoes are Evil, para 3) they are not fit for humans.

There is no proof provided that Europeans long time ago were right at all. After all, they thought that the world was flat.

Study: The ‘Gateway Drug’ Is Alcohol, Not Marijuana from http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/04/12/study-the-gateway-drug-is-alcohol-not-marijuana/

The author claims that alcohol is the “gateway drug” and attempts to establish a connection between the findings of the study of the Journal of School Health and the statement above. The logical fallacy can be simply identified as below:

“students who used alcohol “exhibited a significantly greater likelihood of using both licit and illicit drugs”(Collective Evolution, para 2) alcohol is the “gateway drug”.

The cause-and-effect logical connection, however, is missing from the explanation. It is possible that students take on smoking at the same time as drinking alcohol and Marijuana. It is also possible that they have some common personality traits that make them more vulnerable to use different substances.

Works Cited

“Tomatoes are Evil” n.d. Web.

Collective Evolution “Study: The ‘Gateway Drug’ Is Alcohol, Not Marijuana”  2014. Web.