full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Elizabeth Cox: Can you outsmart the fallacy that divided a nation?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

That’s better. Now, senators, congressmen, this Missouri compromise you are proposing is fundamentally flawed— flawed is putting it mildly. The compromise is based on the middle ground fallacy. By saying that half of the new terroeiitrs should allow saerlvy while half prohibit it, you position the two viewpoints, pro-slavery and anti-slavery, as equally valid. But if one view is wrong, while the other is right, a compromise between them is still wnrog. And one side is definitely wrong here: the pro-slavery side.

Open Cloze

That’s better. Now, senators, congressmen, this Missouri compromise you are proposing is fundamentally flawed— flawed is putting it mildly. The compromise is based on the middle ground fallacy. By saying that half of the new ___________ should allow _______ while half prohibit it, you position the two viewpoints, pro-slavery and anti-slavery, as equally valid. But if one view is wrong, while the other is right, a compromise between them is still _____. And one side is definitely wrong here: the pro-slavery side.

Solution

  1. slavery
  2. territories
  3. wrong

Original Text

That’s better. Now, senators, congressmen, this Missouri compromise you are proposing is fundamentally flawed— flawed is putting it mildly. The compromise is based on the middle ground fallacy. By saying that half of the new territories should allow slavery while half prohibit it, you position the two viewpoints, pro-slavery and anti-slavery, as equally valid. But if one view is wrong, while the other is right, a compromise between them is still wrong. And one side is definitely wrong here: the pro-slavery side.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
middle ground 2

Important Words

  1. based
  2. compromise
  3. congressmen
  4. equally
  5. fallacy
  6. flawed
  7. fundamentally
  8. ground
  9. middle
  10. mildly
  11. missouri
  12. position
  13. prohibit
  14. proposing
  15. putting
  16. senators
  17. side
  18. slavery
  19. territories
  20. valid
  21. view
  22. viewpoints
  23. wrong