Appeal To Emotion

In our never ending quest to skewer the vacuous arguments of the pro-illegal immigration supporters we bring you another edition of "Rhetorical Rants".

Today's edition focuses on "Appeal To Emotion."

This technique is trotted out on the pro-illegal side with alarming frequency for the simple reason that facts do not support them or their views. As senator Moynahan once said "You're entitled to your own opinion but not to your own facts."

Case in point.

This New York Times article is possibly one of the most egregious examples of the genre, and one of the skillfully rendered.

Shhh, let's listen in...

TUCSON - It took years for Normaeli Gallardo, a single mother from Acapulco, to drum up the courage to join the growing stream of Mexican women illegally crossing the border on the promise of a job, in her case working in a Kansas meatpacking plant for $5.15 an hour.

First, she had to grapple with the idea of landing in an unfamiliar country, all alone, with no grasp of English and no place to live.

Then she had to imagine crossing the Arizona desert, where immigrants face heat exhaustion by day, frostbite by night and the cunning of the "coyotes" - smugglers who charge as much as $1,500 to guide people into the United States and who make a habit of robbing and sexually assaulting them.

I find it interesting that the New York Times definition of courage is breaking the law. Notice how skillfully they make you feel like a bum if you ever even wonder why exactly we as Americans need to worry about this very nice lady. And I'm sure she is a very nice...MEXICAN...lady. Doesn't she already live in a country? Why doesn't her very rich country do more for her? Why is it presumed that her only option is to come here illegally

"My heart broke; my heart broke," said Ms. Gallardo, who crumbled as she recounted her decision to leave her girls with her sister and make the uncertain journey across the border. "But I had to give them a better life. I told them I would go and work, and we could buy a small plot of land and build a little house and have a dog."

There's a little more I hoped to share here, but Times Select just cut me off and I'll be damned if I'm paying for the privilege of reading this drivel. But this should be enough to work with.

Note how deftly they portray this person as someone with the right to come here illegally. I mean, doesn't every person in the entire galaxy with a sob story get to come here? It's only fair you foolish Americans, and then again maybe not.

I have no doubt that this young lady is an excellent person. I have no doubt that Mexico is chock-a-bloc full of good people. However, it appears to me they are already in possession of a perfectly good country that they CHOOSE not to make a better place to live for it's citizens', driving them over our southern border.

If you pay attention you will be amazed how often you come across this rhetorical trick employed by the pro-illegal crowd.

Thus endeth the lesson.

h/t And Rightly So (who has an excellent take on this article)

illegal immigration
appeal to emotion
rhetorical tricks