Locked History Attachments

StatistFallacies/NoSystemIsPerfect

Fallacy:

"Our government may not be the perfect system, but it's the best one there is."

Often this quote is cited as back-up:

"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried." —Winston Churchill

Response:

All we need to do is substitute the word "slavery" for "government" in the above fallacy to see how absurd it is. Slavery is wrong, so it is irrelevant that one type of slavery is better than another.

Then we get into the hair splitting that government isn't really slavery, since the subjects of the government have relative freedoms as compared with, say, black slaves on nineteenth century Southern plantations. But make no mistake about it: you and I are government property, and at any time the state can make our actions illegal and take our property, liberty and very lives away from us.

A great counter quote to the Churchill quote:

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" —Benjamin Franklin

In this image, the fallacy appears in this cartoon, making fun of the idea that a human sacrifice should be acceptable because it's the only system there is. Very dark humor indeed:

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/315031_297296770288389_1965435542_n.jpg