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Halloween LSAT Flaws are Spooky Stuff

BPPnick-lsat-blog-halloween-flaws
Halloween is just around the corner. It’s a holiday best associated with C-cast horror movies, miniature ghouls and goblins crowding the streets, and excessive sugar-fueled hallucinations, ones that may seem completely removed from your LSAT study, but, as you may be noticing after completing lesson 6 (which you can go through for free when you sign-up for our Self-Paced Course free trial), flawed reasoning is everywhere, and this haunted holiday is no exception. So, to help you get in the holiday spirit, let’s analyze some of the most prevalent Halloween flaws.

See if you can spot the flaws in the following arguments:

All of my friends know and love Link, so my carefully constructed Link costume will make me the life of the party.

Unlikely. In fact, it’s more likely you’ll just be mistaken for some lame elf, or possibly Robin Hood (trust me). Where did you go wrong? Unrepresentative sampling. Your friends likely share a lot in common with you, which makes them unrepresentative of people in general. Sure, your computer science friends will think it’s awesome – but consider asking others before donning your nerdy costume.

A lot of people use Halloween as an opportunity to be scantily clad, wearing the most revealing costumes possible, so I should too.

Before you buy that scandalous nun costume, check and make sure this is a good group to compare yourself to. Are you a guy? Would you prefer not to be ogled and hit on with cheesy one-liners all night? If so, you’ve got a flawed comparison on your hands.

Two years ago Flava Flav costumes were super fly, so this year dressing as Flava Flav is a great idea.

I would think twice before ripping your clock off the wall and repurposing your bike chain. Times change (even if Flava Flav has not); jumping from the past to the present sounds awfully like a temporal flaw to me.

Zombies are scary as hell in movies, so my zombie costume will have people shrieking in fear.

Zombie movies are definitely scary, but I doubt the cheap makeup and fake wounds you plan to buy will make you look anything other than off-putting. Zombie movies are scary because of the whole package – the music, the lighting, the acting, the special effects. Trying to copy just a part and expecting the same results is absurd. I’m thinking compositional flaws.

Decorations make a house look festive, so if I have the most decorations on the street, my house will be the most festive on the street.

Slow down there, bucko, and think again before you raid your local Walgreens for every last coffin, skeleton, and broomstick-riding witch. You can’t take an absolute claim and introduce proportionality — sometimes less is definitely more.

Candy rots kids’ teeth, and I don’t want to contribute to the decline of the youth, so I should give out apples and floss.

Don’t be that house. It’s a huge leap from Kit-Kats to floss, and there’s a lot in-between that is being ignored. And anytime a viable option is ignored, you should think exclusivity. Save yourself from having your house egged, and leave the floss in your bathroom.

Be safe this Halloween and be sure to protect yourself from these and other logical fallacies in all their nefarious forms.