How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic (2006)

Half-concealed qualification 83

of local politics. Had the same objections come from Friends of the

Earth they might have found more sympathetic ears.)

The genetic fallacy is nowhere more widely seen than in
connection with the alleged views of a few universally detested
figures. The association of Adolf Hitler with a viewpoint is gen-
erally sufficient to damn it. His predecessors, Genghis Khan and
Attila the Hun, left fewer writings, but have many views attrib-
uted to them. In rare cases the hated name becomes adjectival,
with the simple epithet Machiavellian or Hitlerian being sufficient
to remove an idea from consideration by decent people.

Tinkering with genes is fascist talk. That's what Hitler tried to do.

(Actually, he did favour breeding from what he saw as superior stock,

which is not necessarily the same as trying to eliminate certain dis-

orders by gene-splicing. In view of his known association, one is

surprised that the bloodstock industry and dog-breeding have gone

as far as they have. For that matter, Volkswagens and autobahns

seem to have caught on quite well, too.)

To use the genetic fallacy with devastating effect, all you need
do is point out that your opponent is echoing arguments first put
forward in Nazi Germany, then subsequently taken up by
Augusto Pinochet and Saddam Hussein. You, on the other hand,
are advocating points of view put forward by Mother Teresa,
Princess Diana and Mary Poppins...

Half-concealed qualification

In a half-concealed qualification, the words themselves express a

limited claim, but the stress and construction is such that the

qualifications are glossed over. Although the limits are stated, the