Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Michael Moore kindly provides an example of observational selection

Love him or hate him, one thing cannot be disputed; Michael Moore's search for the truth is (intentionally) awful. This will not be my last example of the deliberate fallacious reasoning he uses, designed to win regardless of the truth; but the following from Fahrenheit 9/11 is a nice little example of Observational Selection.

Ironically, Moore tends to bash his countrymen for ignoring the rest of the world – yet here is his mocking 'role call' for the 'coalition of the willing' in the Iraqi war: Palau (little girls in grass skirts), Costa Rica (peasant pulling an ox cart), Iceland (Vikings), Romania (Dracula), Morocco (who, one report said, offered to send 2000 monkeys to blow up landmines), Netherlands (Drug addicts), and Afghanistan (Poppy growers).

Hence Observational Selection. Apparently the following countries in the 'coalition of the willing' don't rate a mention: Australia, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Spain, Turkey and of course the United Kingdom. We actually see this inconsistency later in the film. He shows three Japanese who are kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents. He tells us how they are threatened with beheading unless Japan withdraws its troops. Oops!


More Moore:
...pseudologia fantastica
...Handsome-ature
...the Awful Truth