Quote (Em_SeeD)
red herring?
ever taken a philosophy, critical thinking, logic, or speech class? red herring is a type of fallacy.
the concept of a red herring comes from an old tactic used for training hunting dogs. you would have a path of animal tracks and take a bag of red herrings, a smoked fish, and drag it across the path then have the dog follow the path to find the animal and see if he continues on that path or diverts and follows the herrings. it is a metaphor for "red herring" in the argumentative sense. it is when you form an argument by dragging a totally unconnected concept across your argument. so if i were to say "We admit that this measure is popular. But we also urge you to note that there are so many bond issues on this ballot that the whole thing is getting ridiculous." that would be a red herring.
