Ebanks, Mitchell 1

Kyanna Ebanks, Ashleigh Mitchell

March 22, 2016
UWRT 1103-47
Dr. Peter Blair
Fallacies of An Open Letter
Many people laughed when businessman Donald Trump announced that he was running
for president. This announcement was intriguing to say the least, but who would have known that
Donald Trump would be the leading candidate on the Republican ticket. In the same way that
there is debate between the Democrats and Republicans in politics, Donald Trump has gained
both supporters during his campaigning and ridicule for his behavior. The group of people who
will not be voting for Trump have gone to great lengths to terminate his support. Jeremy Nix, a
at home journalist who is anti-Trump, wrote an article called An Open Letter To My Friend
Who Supports Donald Trump, where he lists reasons on why people should not vote for Donald
Trump. In this letter, the author falls into traps of bad writing which according to George Orwell
have evolved from bad habits that are difficult to get rid of (Orwell, p. 157). As a result of trying
to persuade the reader to vote against Donald Trump, Jeremy Nix presents a flawed argument
which contains the fallacies sarcasm, name calling, and stacked evidence.
The title of an essay can give important details about what the author is trying to unveil to
his or her reader, but in Jeremy Nix case the title contains a fallacy called sarcasm. Sarcasm is a
sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark (Dictionary, pg1). Sarcasm can come can be
found in written or spoken words, but sarcasm can also be expressed by a persons tone.
Looking at the title,An Open Letter to My Friends Who Vote for Trump, one could easily
overlook the invisible quotation marks around the friend. After reading the first sentence of the

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article which says,I'm cool with you removing me from your friends list if you don't like this
post, it becomes evident that Jeremy Nix is using a sarcastic tone to not only attack Trump, but
to taunt Trump supporters (Nix, par1). By using the word friend sarcastically, a negative
association is created between Trumps supporters and Donald Trump himself. Jeremy Nix
kickstarts this essay with a negative tone which serves as a warning sign for the other sarcastic
remarks to come. Nix continues to make assumptions about Trump supporters when he recalls an
incident that occur while Trump addressed a crowd in Las Vegas. A man was escorted out after
interrupting Donald Trump's speech. While he was existing, a trump supporter yelled "light the
mother@!$%#er on fire, implying that the rallyer should be lit on fire. (Feldmen, par. 2). That
quote was then entered out of context in Nixs letter to draw a conclusion that all of Trumps
supporters are racist such as the one who said that harsh quote. Nix continues and attempts at a
rebuttal and writes, Maybe the protester was wrong to be where he was at the time, but no
matter what he did, there was no reason to set him on fire (Nix, par. 11). Although this
statement is true and Nix is correct by saying it, immediately after he writes that statement, he
undoes his only attempt at a rebuttal by throwing in another sarcastic comment. He writes, In
fact, there is NEVER a reason to set anyone on fire. Unless it's because they are dead and they
wish to be cremated (Nix, par 11). Nix calls out a Trump supporter for telling the security
guards to light the rallyer on fire, which Nix had every right to do, but minimizes the impact that
reference could have had on his readers by using sarcasm to joke about cremation. Sarcasm can
be a way to add humor to an essay and make a point, but unfortunately the way Jeremy Nix used
it caused him to stereotype Trumps supporters as racists and completely ignore the issue that
voters are misinformed.

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Nix stereotyping Trumps supporters as racists and other misguided jabs at Trump are
present throughout this entire letter. Ann McClintock defined name calling as negatively
charged names [are] hurled against the opposing side or competitor (McClintock, pp. 305). This
fallacy becomes Nix best friend all throughout this letter. For example, Nix is constantly calling
out Trump for being hateful, sexist, racist and ignorant as well as those who support him (Nix,
par.1). He is judging them solely on who they support for the election, not for any crime or
wrongdoing they have or havent committed. He projects his dislike of Trump onto his
supporters by assuming that they are ...bigoted, misogynistic jerks that only are voting for him
due to their dislike of Democrats (Nix, par. 11). Not all supporters of Trump are angry; they
may just see something different from Nix perspective (Nix, par. 7). All this name calling and
use of harsh language could make Nix lose his credibility due to seeming like a hypocrite that
criticizes the man who he claims criticizes everyone else.
Nix believes either you support Trump and are therefore awful jerks or you could vote
against him and make sure we dont put a target on our backs. This tactic, either or, is described
by Nancy Wood as arguments oversimplified by the arguer and presented as black-or-white,
either-or choices when there are actually other alternatives (Wood, p. 2). Nix believes that either
we can keep Trump out of office or we will be heading back to when gay people had to hide in
fear, back when people of any other color than white had to worry about getting lynched, back
when it was okay to openly hate? (Nix par. 10). There were presidents in office that were the
complete opposite of Trump and these events still took place. There have always been backlash
apparent in history especially dealing with race. Take Abraham Lincoln for instance. He
was a calm, collected man that passed the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves but
despite this, it did not abolish the institution of slavery in the United States. Rather, it

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freed any slave in the Confederate states (Gates par. 2). Slavery and injustice towards
races continued for years following this and still continue to this day. Trump being in office
may or may not cause any of those obstacles to happen so Nix shouldnt assume that it will. He
has no place to. When Nix says In this country we FIGHT and DIE for freedom, for Truth and
Justice. We fight for what's right. And what Trump is doing and saying isn't right, hes
insinuating that if you vote for Trump, you do not believe in these objectives (Nix, par. 13).
There are more people than just Trumps supporters. We still could fight for freedom, truth, and
justice with or without Donald Trump.
Nix writes with little evidence while he is name calling, but then out of nowhere starts
quoting every incident where Trump has acted out. He gives fourteen quotes from Donald
Trump's debates back to back to show that Trump is arrogant, a racist, and sexist. In the first
half of the article Jeremy Nix calls Trump names and uses sarcasm to mock Trump without
outside sources or quotes as evidence. Instead he save the quotes for the last half of the
article. He formats this article to stacks quote on top of quote and adds a rude remark at
the end of each quote that makes Trump fit the harsh names he called earlier in the article.
A person who reads this article could easily believe everything Nix had previously wrote because
he backs up his arguments with quotes from Trump. For example, I will build a great wall -and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me -- and I'll build them very inexpensively. I
will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall.
Mark my words. - Donald Trump (Nix, par 12). Not only does he include a quote which show
Trumps view of Mexican wall, but Nix finishes the quote with his own opinion by saying, The
words of an arrogant hate monger, immediately after (Nix, par 12) . Little do his readers know,
they are victim to another fallacy committed by Jeremy Nix called stacked evidence. According

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to Nancy Wood, stacked evidence is presenting an overwhelming amount of evidence that only
proves one side (Wood, p. 2). He also uses stacked evidence to show that Trump is a racist. For
example, When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best. They're not sending you,
they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems with us.
They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists... And some, I assume, are good
people. -- Donald Trump. Racist (Nix, par 21). After the quotes, he always gives his opinion of
Trump which is revealed when he said, racist. He continues to list quotes of Trump without
any context as to when he said it and always finishes with an opinion for every one of the 14
quotes. He is attacking Trump by waiting to give all of his evidence till the end of the essay
because it only presents one side of Trumps character Jeremy Nix only presents the bulldog
behavior of Donald Trump during his campaign, and never provides an incidence where he is not
giving his strict views on immigration and then classifies him as a racist. He also forgets to give
Trump credit for his success as a businessman. Although bullying may not be a character trait
that citizens of America want to see in their future president, business skills could come in use
when making deals with other countries, creating the national budget, and providing jobs. Jeremy
Nix may have a point in voting against Trump, but he needs to provide his readers with all of the
evidence so they can be an educated voter.
Jeremy Nix had an opportunity to inform Trump supporters of reasons not to vote for
Trump. He took an extremist approach which lead him to stereotype Trumps supporters as
racists when there is a bigger problem at hand. Voters can be misinformed or have no clue who
they are voting for. When uninformed voters read articles such as this, they only see one side of
the story because of the stacked evidence, or they choose not to vote for Trump because they do
not want to be categorized as racists or ignorant. It is not important whether or not I agree with

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Trumps behavior, but it is unfair for Jeremy Nix to only portray one side of Donald Trump. If
Nix would have shown the successful business side of Donald Trump, then he could have
provided a fairer argument that showed both sides of Trump. Being a part of a new generation
of voters, I want to educate myself on the candidates and their platforms before blinding
voting. Unfortunately this campaign has been viewed as a joke, and Jeremy Nixs article
and others alike have prevented my education process. All forms of media which includes
news outlets and online articles such as Jeremy Nix have power which could inform voters of the
truth, but unfortunately fallacies get in the way of providing voters with the entire story.
According to George Orwell, The English language as it is now is habitually written,
meaning that writers often times fall into fallacy or bad political writing simply because of
bad habit (Orwell, p. 157). Since it is a habit that is affecting the population of voters in
America, writers like Nix and readers like myself need to be able to spot fallacies and retain
from using them or believing them. After all, our countys future is at stake.

Work Cited
Feldmen, Josh. "Light the Motherf*cker on Fire!: Trump Rallygoers Shout Down
Protesters." Mediaite Light the Motherfcker on Fire Trump Rallygoers Shout
Down Protesters Comments. 14 Dec. 2015. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.
Gates, H. L., Jr. Did Lincoln Really Free the Slaves? The Root. TheRoot.com, 27 Jan.
2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
McClintok, Ann. Propaganda Techniques in Todays Advertising. The Longman Reader. Ed.
Judith Nadell. New York: Longman, 2003. 304-311. Print.

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Nix, Jeremy. "An Open Letter to My Friends Who Support Donald Trump." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Feb. 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2016.
Orwell, George. Politics and the English Language. A Collection of Critical Essays.
New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1981. 156-171. Print.
"Sarcasm". Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins
Publishers. 02 Mar. 2016. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sarcasm>.
Wood, Nancy. Essentials of Argument. Upper Saddle River: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2006.
Print.