O’Reilly’s Reductio ad Hitlerum
So, Bill O’Reilly has concluded that, because Arianna Huffington doesn’t premoderate comments on her site, she’s the same as the Nazis and the KKK.
One of Bill’s viewers wrote in, suggesting that the analogy doesn’t really hold up, but O’Reilly explained to him why he feels the way he does.
A lot of people are pretty upset about this. Some are pointing out that Billo’s comment area isn’t always free of ugliness. Others are quoting O’Reilly himself, pointing out that he’s said some rather unpleasant things about people.
Honestly, I don’t see the point in arguing about this. If I asserted to you that your house was made of mutton, how far would you go to prove me wrong? Would you slice off a slab of a wall and point out to me that it’s plaster and not meat? Would you offer me a bite? Would you try to appeal to logic, pointing out that if the house were made of mutton, it would smell awful, be covered by insects, and fall apart?
Of course not. You’d quickly conclude that I was batshit crazy, and that would be the end of the discussion.
Tags: Bill-OReilly, Huffington, KKK, Nazis
John J. on 03 Mar 2008 at 9:34 am #
“They both want people to die.” Proof positive that she is a Nazi…. I’ve seen some leaps of logic before, but that takes the cake.
qwerty on 03 Mar 2008 at 12:11 pm #
Ah, but as Billo points out at the end of the first video, he didn’t say that she’s a Nazi — just that they do the same thing.
So, you can’t argue with that. As I understand it, the Nazis breathed oxygen, wore shoes, and both spoke and ate with their mouths…. just like Arianna Huffington!
John J. on 03 Mar 2008 at 3:28 pm #
Unlike Bill, who speaks out of a different orifice.