Dumbest argument you ever heard

[FatherTime89]

What's the dumbest argument you ever heard (obviously involving politics)? We've all heard dumb or faulty arguments but are there any ones that stick out in your mind as being so dumb you find it hard to believe that they got there through any sort of thought or logic?

Note this is dumb arguments not dumb ideas.

For me there was a debate over prostitution. One person on the anti-side said that if prostitution were legal men would feel more entitled to women's bodies.

...

Because nothing makes you feel more entitled to something than having to pay money for it.

[VigilanteNighthawk]

Pretty much anything Ray Comfort or Kirk Cameron have ever said.

[Drakim]

Pascal's wager, no doubt

[yurgenburgen]

An argument by a feminist who claimed that the fire department discriminated against women by deliberately making fire axes too heavy for the average woman to operate.

[Light]

The argument that Palestinians deserve their own country.

[RubberTrucky]

At 7/1/10 02:09 AM, FatherTime89 wrote:
For me there was a debate over prostitution. One person on the anti-side said that if prostitution were legal men would feel more entitled to women's bodies.

...

Because nothing makes you feel more entitled to something than having to pay money for it.

I don't want to derail the thread, but I don't think it is that stupid. Prostitutes can get killed often because the fact that their bodies can be 'bought' seems to make men think that they really own them to do as they please. Prostitution is not the safest job at all.

As for the thread itself, I almost always dislike arguments of the kind of "because we're he top of the foodchain". Like when debating vegetarianism and someone says we should eat meat because we're top dog on earth or like we should stop caring for animals cause they are less than us. And of course when people think they shouldn't care about certain people because they are evolutionary so much better than those to the point of eugenics and racial purification to weed out what they refer to as the weak.

[Ericho]

I have heard of a lot of dumb arguments, but I think the dumbest might be something by Fred Phelps. As he is so unfathomably stupid, you could argue he does not even make political arguments at all, but simply religious arguments. I think Phelps exists for the sole purpose of having someone that even the worst religious fundamentalists can look down on. He's kind of like Ralph Wiggum.

[Amoebaman]

I cant quite get the dumbest thing I've heard in my mind but...

That humans have absolutely nothing to do with climate change just because it has happened many times before without us.

[lapis]

I personally have the "if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear" kind of logic that is often used in (invasion of) privacy discussions pretty high in my list of dumb arguments.

[Scarface]

The fact that gays can't fight in the military because (1) they are too weak and (2) they would be too busy having sex to fight.

(1) Women are generally weaker than men (generally, not always) and they're allowed to fight in the military.

(2) If men and women are both in the military, and THEY aren't too busy having sex 24/7, why would homosexuals be?

If they pass training, they know how to shoot a gun, and they're on our side, hell I'll take them. I don't care if they fuck straight, as long as they shoot straight.

[Der-Lowe]

That we should cut spending and raise interest rates now because the markets might want that in the future, although there's no sign that they will. Oh, and that doing it will have no effect in economic growth. (page 85/222)

[The-universe]

Here's a list:

1. If gays were allowed to marry it would corrupt families, overturn society and bring the human race to extinction.

2. There's no such thing as a man being raped by a woman.

3. Prayer healing works because my aunts best friend had a son and her husband was impotent.

4. 9/11 was an inside job. the moon landing was fake (general conspiracy theories).

5. Evolution can't be proven because of moon dust.

6. The Holocaust didn't happen.

7. I'm right because (insert celebrity name here) believes what I do.

8. Dinosaurs didn't exist (thank you for that one Texas).

9. *anything from fox news*

[animehater]

At 7/1/10 04:02 PM, The-universe wrote: 9. *anything from fox news*

To use such a statement as that in an argument would in itself be stupid to me.

[animehater]

At 7/1/10 04:47 PM, animehater wrote:

At 7/1/10 04:02 PM, The-universe wrote: 9. *anything from fox news*

To use such a statement as that in an argument would in itself be stupid to me.

Unless that was the exact intention of that post. Then I shall smoke some drugs now.

[Dawnslayer]

That the oil spill in the Gulf is the fault of environmentalists for not allowing drilling on land or in shallow water.

[Proteas]

"I think this way because Rage Against the Machine/Green Day told me too." Never spoken verbatim, but a sentiment that was expressed quite often back when Bush was in office.

"You don't live in a pit, you don't need a pitbull!" Spoken verbatim by some individual in a topic about the legality of owning the pitbull breed of dog. It still makes my head throb to this day.

[SmilezRoyale]

"I, the state, am the people." - It's an absurdity when spoken honestly but implicit in most arguments about government.

[BrianEtrius]

Being gay is genetic because if it's passed down from gay parents to gay children.

Er, with the exceptions of sperm donors, how can gay people procreate? Somebody skipped Sex Ed.

[Scarface]

"(insert national problem here) is all Bill Clinton's fault."

According to these assholes, George Bush never had any impact whatsoever, and was apparently unable to change anything Clinton did in his eight years of office. Even now, in Obama's first term, it's been a decade since Clinton was in office, and people are blaming him for the oil spill in the gulf.

[Der-Lowe]

How to cut the deficit:

At 7/1/10 01:22 PM, NHT123 wrote: I would tell those people at the federal reserve that they are not getting all the interest they seek for loaning us money.

[VigilanteNighthawk]

At 7/1/10 08:16 PM, BrianEtrius wrote: Being gay is genetic because if it's passed down from gay parents to gay children.

Er, with the exceptions of sperm donors, how can gay people procreate? Somebody skipped Sex Ed.

1) Being gay means you don't like being intimate with the opposite sex, not that you are incapable of it. Many gay people have gotten married and had kids only to come out later in life.
2) Recessive traits. Two brown eyed parents can have a blue eyed child.
3) Most researchers now believe that the genetic component of sexuality involves multiple genes. There is no single gay gene, but a combination of many genes. So, take some genes from straight parent A and some other genes from straight parent B, and you hit the homosexual genetic jackot. Of course, this could be wrong, but that's the current thought on the subject.

[HibiscusKazeneko]

"Circumcision prevents HIV/AIDS."
If this were the case, why does the United States, the nation with the HIGHEST neonatal circumcision rates in the world, have THE HIGHEST HIV/AIDS infection rate in the entire developed world?

Seriously, these politicians need to get their heads out of their asses.
We're not saving anyone by forcibly mutilating all males at birth.

[Memorize]

At 7/1/10 04:58 PM, Dawnslayer wrote: That the oil spill in the Gulf is the fault of environmentalists for not allowing drilling on land or in shallow water.

So how would you rate the Government telling BP to drill in deep enough water that no oil company in history has ever successfully controlled a disaster before?

Moron.

[The-universe]

At 7/1/10 04:47 PM, animehater wrote:

At 7/1/10 04:02 PM, The-universe wrote: 9. *anything from fox news*

To use such a statement as that in an argument would in itself be stupid to me.

How so?

[Scarface]

At 7/1/10 08:16 PM, BrianEtrius wrote: Being gay is genetic because if it's passed down from gay parents to gay children.

Er, with the exceptions of sperm donors, how can gay people procreate? Somebody skipped Sex Ed.

Maybe it's a skipping gene? Let's say John and Jane have two kids; Bill and Susan. Bill is gay, and although Susan is not, she is a carrier of the gene. Then, later in life, one of Susan's kids turns out to be gay.

The cycle continues.

[VigilanteNighthawk]

I have another personal favorite:
"Look at all the snow we had this year. So much for global warming."

On the face of it, this one appears to make sense, but paradoxically, warmer temperatures do actually produce more snow. First, having more heat means that you have more energy to evaporate water needed to make snow. Second, warmer air is capable of holding more moisture than colder air. Thus, air at 31 degrees F will evaporate and hold more moisture, and hence more snow, than air at o degrees F.

[Ranger2]

Any, "communism would work if!" arguments.

[Scarface]

At 7/2/10 02:43 PM, Ranger2 wrote: Any, "communism would work if!" arguments.

Well Communism can work (China), but people would have to give up many, many civil liberties.

[Dawnslayer]

At 7/2/10 02:48 PM, Scarface wrote:

At 7/2/10 02:43 PM, Ranger2 wrote: Any, "communism would work if!" arguments.

Well Communism can work (China), but people would have to give up many, many civil liberties.

China is communist? I thought it was capitalist-imperialist with a faux-facade republic that claimed to be communist.

[FatherTime89]

At 7/1/10 07:19 AM, RubberTrucky wrote:

At 7/1/10 02:09 AM, FatherTime89 wrote:
For me there was a debate over prostitution. One person on the anti-side said that if prostitution were legal men would feel more entitled to women's bodies.

...

Because nothing makes you feel more entitled to something than having to pay money for it.

I don't want to derail the thread, but I don't think it is that stupid. Prostitutes can get killed often because the fact that their bodies can be 'bought' seems to make men think that they really own them to do as they please. Prostitution is not the safest job at all.

Uh huh, so why doesn't that work with all their other partners? The pro and the john set the terms before the err service so it's obvious it's not an actual purchase.

Also if you think all men secretly want to murder someone and all it takes is a pro to unleash them you're a fool.
And besides why the hell doesn't it seem to work that way with pets which you actually do buy?