EMOTIONAL COLORATION

Playing upon emotion to color the case and distract from a close scrutiny of the issue is the most common of all fallacies. It is present in degree in almost all instances where there is any other disturbance. Indeed, the possibilities of name calling, prejudicial epithets, flag-waving, and the whole sorry display of public emotion are so commonly exploited by all classes of men under all sorts of conditions as to seem a part of our natural equipment, like the ability to laugh and cry. No one needs to leam them. As soon as we begin to converse and to enter upon public discussion, we find ourselves endowed with the knack of generating, as people say, more heat than light.