Panorama of my town

Panorama of my town

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The 'New' Georgia Republican Logic


There is a 'new' logic that I have recently had an opportunity to learn and I thought I'd share it with you.  It's unique and creative and it has taken me a while to wrap my head around it, but after a full day at the Georgia legislature this week, I am beginning to understand.

I have several women friends in the Legislature who have tried, on a few occasions, to explain the 'new' logic to me, but I just could not figure out what they were talking about.  I took one Logics class at GSU many years ago and had a similar problem so I just figured it was me and I didn't worry on it too much.  But after the 'intensive' I went through on Monday under the Gold Dome I NOW understand it, and I gotta tell you it scares the hell out of me.

As such, I feel it is my obligation to explain it to you, not to scare you but to warn you to be careful because its a trap and you will get hurt if you get caught in it, especially if  you are a woman or if you love a woman.

Now first, according to the 'all knowing' Wikipedia the definition of Logic goes like this:  “ Logic (from the Greek λογική logikē) is the philosophical study of valid reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science. It examines general forms which arguments may take, which forms are valid, and which are fallacies.  Logic is often divided into three parts, inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning.”

Continuing to cut and paste from Wikipedia I offer you an explaination of each of the types of reasonings:
Inductive reasoning, also known as induction, is a kind of reasoning that constructs or evaluates propositions that are abstractions of observations of individual instances of members of the same class. Inductive reasoning contrasts with deductive reasoning in that a general conclusion is arrived at by specific examples.

Abduction is a kind of logical inference described by Charles Sanders Peirce as "guessing".The term refers to the process of arriving at an explanatory hypothesis. Peirce said that to abduce a hypothetical explanation  from an observed surprising circumstance is to surmise what may be true because then it  would be a matter of course.  For example, the lawn is wet. But if it rained last night, then it would be unsurprising that the lawn is wet. Therefore, by abductive reasoning, the possibility that it rained last night is reasonable.

And finally

Deductive reasoning,  is reasoning which constructs or evaluates deductive arguments.  Deductive arguments are attempts to show that a conclusion necessarily follows from a set of premises or hypotheses. A deductive argument is valid if the conclusion does follow necessarily from the premises, i.e., the conclusion must be true provided that the premises are true. A deductive argument is sound if it is valid and its premises are true. Deductive arguments are valid or invalid, sound or unsound. Deductive reasoning is a method of gaining knowledge. An example of a deductive argument:
All men are mortal
Socrates is a man
Therefore, Socrates is mortal

Got it?  Great.  


Now I call the ‘new’ Republican logic ‘Fuctuptive Reasoning.'   Fuctuptive reasoning is the self-righteous and narcissistic argument that Republicans use to oppress anyone who does not look like them, think like them or have their privilege.  Using fuctuptive reasoning, the government should be limited and small when it comes to them and their business but government should be all in your business if you are not one of ‘them.’   An example that follows this premise, i.e, if a Republican woman gets pregnant and she has access to all the finest health care resources that money can buy then she gets to make whatever decisions she desires about her own body, but a woman of limited means and education will do what she is told because a Republican legislature knows what best for her. 

This is also their reasoning behind immigration reform and education.  'I am rich so I can live where ever I want but you are poor so you need to stay where you are.  If you come here to pick my fruit just don't get caught.'  And,  'I can buy the best education in the world but you will get what I give you in public schools and like it or take these tax-payer funded vouchers and attend a for-profit charter school run by one of my buddies.'

Get it?

Now I know this is kind of a complex ‘new’ logic and if you are like me you probably just don’t get it right now. Not to worry, you are not dumb or slow, you are just not a Republican and you probably need to just sit down and shut up because they are in charge at the State Capitol so they get to make the rules that follow their logic.