Essay Prompt: On January 6, 2021for the first time in its historythe peaceful transfer of power in the United States was interrupted. Analyze the causes and effects of the January 6 insurrectionists’ actions.
Optional: For extra points, try to identify a few specific fallacies expressed by the words and deeds of the insurrectionists (e.g., the bandwagon or popularity fallacy — everybody is doing it; “appeal to authority”–the president called on us). You may use common language to describe a fallacy, because some fallacy names are tricky and in Latin.
So, instead of writing out the Latin phrase post hoc ergo propter hoc, you can simply write the translation, after this, therefore because of this, shorten it to post hoc, or just label it a cause and effect fallacy. For example, after losing the presidential election, Trump falsely claimed fraud was the cause.
Note: A claim can be based on multiple fallacies; in other words, fallacies can overlap. However, there is no need to try to identify every fallacy. Feel free to focus on one fallacy for the entire essay, just use different examples.
