Motte and Bailey, X

I promise this is the last of these I have up my sleeve.  I may have more thoughts on this topic later, but for now …

I thought it only fair to offer a few examples of what I consider to be real motte and bailey.

Here’s one someone else did on global warming: https://ordinary-times.com/2014/11/12/an-example-of-the-motte-and-bailey-doctrine/  (Note that I don’t necessarily agree completely with his breakdown, but I think his overall picture of the movement making extreme claims when there are milder ones that are much more reasonable, and defensible, is accurate.)

Here are a few I’ve encountered recently.  Baileys are in quotation marks, mottes in parentheses.

“Masks make you sick.”  (If you have a breathing/blood-oxygenation issue, they can.)

“Masks are harmless.  (Unless you have a breathing/blood-oxygenation issue!)

“Defund the police.”  (It turns out that it sometimes means “get rid of” but sometimes just “slash the funding” and sometimes “take some of the funding and give it to other people to do the same work.”  These are three very different things.)

“People lose their faith in college.”  (It turns out that “lose their faith” frequently means “don’t agree with their parents as much,” which is probably true, but also a more moderate claim.  It would also be true to say that some people lose their faith through attending college; and also that some people have their faith strengthened or gain a new belief system.)

“Most people are perfectly happy to stay home and not work and survive on government handouts.”  (It turns out that this applies to those of us who are in happy relationships, with several other people in the household, and plenty of fruitful hobbies and/or work from home opportunities.  Maybe that’s “most people”—I sure hope it is—but I rather doubt it.)