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Logical Fallacies and the News

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Identify a current event or contemporary social issue that you are interested in analyzing using the critical thinking method. Your issue must be broad enough to sustain deep philosophical analysis and must have relevance to your community. This means that the issue should be one (1) about which reasonable minds can disagree, (2) that concretely affects people's lives and (3)that requires a solution. Issues that only affect a few people or have only a minor impact are probably too narrow. Issues that you are not open to examining with an open mind will also not work well for this assignment. For some topic suggestions, you might want to browse some recent episodes of PBS's Frontline series or the website of a reputable news organization.

Identify at least two news articles on your topic located reputable news outlets. Make sure that the articles you choose present at least two different perspectives on the issue or event you choose and include information that you can use to develop your arguments and analysis. If you cannot locate two news articles on your topic, or if all of the articles share the same perspective, you should choose another topic. You should cite the two articles using correct APA citation.

Analyze the issue using the critical-thinking method. Identify and explain any logical fallacies that might be involved in any of the relevant arguments.

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The solution discusses logical fallacies and the news.

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I dealt with the SCO, one of the most significant developments in international relations since World War II. It affects everyone and everything on the planet.

I argue for both sides, but I tilt to the SCO. You can rectify that if you want.

I have two articles and some supporting materials.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization:
Threat against the West or Promise of Fairness?

There are few issues impacting the world like this one. The SCO is designed to counter the continued expansion of the US across the globe. In a sense, it is the joining of the more powerful states of the third world to fight for equity and national character. As of 2013, the members of the SCO are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Those with observer status awaiting their final membership are Iran, Afghanistan, India, Mongolia and Pakistan. These are the most strategic countries in the world. These states contain most of the world's oil, natural gas and population. Two of the members possess many nuclear weapons. It should also be noted that both Russian and China are economically doing far better than the U.S.

The aims of the SCO are economic cooperation, de-dollarization, cultural pluralism and concerted efforts against the two main problems of the area, Islamic extremism and drugs. They abide by the Charter of the UN and, other than China and Russia, no further proliferation of nuclear weapons will be permitted, including Iran.

In Zaidi (2013), the author stresses that the SCO is a Chinese-Russian led coalition to challenge the US, colonialism and globalization. He argues that this is a peaceful coalition that is aimed at the imposition of a single sort of liberal-capitalism upon the globe. Rather, the SCO seeks a world order of voluntary agreements within the cultural matrix of its members. No order should be imposed, since nations are not the same.

Since the USSR n longer functions as a check on the west, the SCO, in a sense, is a replacement. It might be noted that Afghanistan is a member, clearly rejecting her "liberation" by US forces. To the chagrin of Washington, India is a member, and even worse for the west, so is Iran. In reality, according to Zaidi, the SCO is about the reestablishment of a global balance of power.

Therefore, I favor of the SCO lies the arguments that a) the U.S. is too powerful, b) it has no right to impose liberal democracy and capitalism on anyone, c) it has no right to use unilateral force against anyone unless directly attacked, and d) the dollar has long outlived its ...

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