Ohman Sees RFK Jr. As a Less Accomplished Trump

Analyzing the article

San Francisco Chronicle
slippery slope
ad hominem
guilt by association
appeal to ridicule
appeal to authority

Our Analysis: 5 Fallacies


The notion that RFK Jr. could competently serve as president of the United States is laughable.

...

The audacity of Kennedy's once Democratic, now "independent" candidacy, and maybe even as a Libertarian, has earned him rather significant polling numbers: some show him in the 20s or better.

...Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has 1 turned into a crank, a delusional conspiracy nut about, well, most things: vaccines, the JFK assassination, his father's assassination, the origins of COVID-19 and an almost endless litany of other subjects. 2 He hangs around intellectually flatulent Steve Bannon and wacky Putin buddy Gen. Michael Flynn, and his name was floated recently as a potential running mate for Trump.


Trump/Kennedy 2024? What a perfect pairing! Both are utterly unqualified, delusional, vain and would be a 3 catastrophe for the country each in his own special way. Even 4 his Kennedy sibs are supporting President Joe Biden, and JFK's grandson mocked his second cousin on social.


Trump has already shown what he can do in four years.5 Elect Kennedy, and you'll get something comparable: a 3 parody of a presidency, a collection of fringe goofballs making Marianne Williamson look like Eleanor Roosevelt. Why does RFK Jr. play footsie with the Trump crowd? Because he's inept.



  • Ohman makes some potentially valid points about RFK Jr.'s nontraditional political career path, but relies heavily on ad hominem attacks, false equivalence, and emotional rhetoric rather than addressing his arguments directly using logic and evidence. ​
  1. Ad hominem • The author attacks Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s character rather than addressing his arguments or qualifications, calling him a "crank" and a "delusional conspiracy nut." ​
  2. Guilt by association • The author seeks to discredit RFK Jr. because he associates with Bannon, Flynn and other fringe figures. This doesn't actually refute RFK Jr's arguments. This text also uses loaded language, referring to Bannon and Flynn as "intellectually flatulent" and "wacky", further adding to to the ad hominem noted above. ​
  3. Appeal to ridicule • The author uses mockery and sarcasm to dismiss RFK Jr.'s potential candidacy, assrting that it would be laughable and using phrases like "utterly unqualified," "catastrophe for the country," and "parody of a presidency" to evoke fear and concern without providing a supporting analysis for these claims. ​
  4. Appeal to authority • The author uses the support of RFK Jr.'s siblings and JFK's grandson for President Biden as evidence against RFK Jr.'s candidacy, without explaining these relatives' qualifications for assessing political candidates generally, or their reasons for supporting Biden in particular. ​
  5. Slippery slope • The author suggests that electing RFK Jr. would lead to a catastrophe for the country, similar to the presidency of Donald Trump, without providing substantive evidence for this claim.This is also a false equivalence; comparing RFK Jr. to Trump and suggesting they would be equally bad presidents, when there's no evidence presented to support they would actually govern the same way.


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Note that there being one or more apparent fallacies in the arguments presented in this article does not mean that every argument the arguer made was fallacious, nor does it mean there are not other arguments in existence for the same or similar position that are logically valid. Also note that checking for fallacies is not the same as verification of the premises the arguer starts from, such as facts that the arguer asserts or principles that the arguer assumes as the foundation for constructing arguments. For more about this, see our 'What is Fallacy Checking?'

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