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Millie Weaver,
of alt-right conservative ‘fake news’ organization InfoWars, created a stir online
early this month when she shared a debate she had with vegan activist Ed
Winters – better known as Earthling Ed – to YouTube.
In this PBN
exclusive, viewers can see highlights of the original video – which was over 40
minutes in length – as well as some discussion of issues that arose in the
argument.
Fallacies
A number of
fallacies appear in the InfoWars employee’s arguments, including an appeal to
tradition, an appeal to faith, a straw-man fallacy, and a red herring.
As noted in
the video, Weaver makes multiple appeals to tradition – claiming that because
something has been common practice historically, it must therefore be ethical.
She also
makes an appeal to faith to substantiate her own beliefs, sighting Christianity
and the Bible as determinants of wrong and right.
A red herring
fallacy – the introduction of an irrelevant topic – occurs when Weaver brings the
hunting methods of lions to the table, a topic which she fails to connect to
the matter at hand.
Finally,
the straw-man fallacy is also employed by Weaver, in which she affixes beliefs
to Winters that he does not necessarily hold – specifically, she implies that
he is an advocate of globalism and believes that animal products must be made
illegal.
Responses
Aside from
that of Plant Based News, there have been a number of response videos created
by prominent vegan YouTubers.
Anji and
Ryan of Happy Healthy vegan, and Mike of Mic. The Vegan have also taken to YouTube
to share their insights on the controversial encounter.
