Red Herring

Mother: “Okay, sweetie, go brush your teeth.

Child: “Can I feed the cat a waffle?”

Mother: “You shouldn’t do that, please go brush your teeth.”

Child: “But he needs a waffle!”

This probably sounds like a normal conversation between a mother and child. We all know that kids can be a little bit crazy from time to time, but what most people wouldn’t realize is that a normal conversation like this is also a logical fallacy called Red Herring.

A red herring is a fallacy in which a person says something, often going on a bit of a rant, which will distract another person from the original point. Children often use it try to get out of doing things that they don’t want to do, much like the example above.

This type of fallacy is often used in politics as well. I’ve seen debates where the politician will be asked a difficult question. The politician then starts to give what most think is an answer but then start talking about something else that doesn’t relate to the original question. Even political ads are full of red herrings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmFd25tRqo

This link is a Barak Obama campaign video from 2008 when he ran against John McCain. The video starts out seeming to say that McCain knows nothing about America’s economy. Then moves to talking about how many houses he owns, completely taking the viewers away from the original point.