Honzo October 5th, 2005

The Parableman takes a look at Bennett and his recent comments: Parableman: Bill Bennett, Abortion, and Race

The role his example has in the argument is that it’s a counterexample to a particular claim. To serve as such a counterexample, it needs to be a very bad action with a good consequence.
The worse the action, the better the example. The more sophisticated
complaint against Bennett understands the nature of the argument but
has trouble with his consequence. They don’t think it’s very nice, or
polite, or something to use a particular empirical fact in his
argument. That empirical fact is that more crime takes place in
predominantly black neighborhoods, more crime takes place at the hands
of black people, and more crime is against black people than is the
case in white neighborhoods, by white people, and against white people.
This is a fact that’s been observed by empirical study and is not
disputed by anyone…

…Now there’s one slightly more reasonable complaint someone might
make, and I’ve only seen it suggested just once. Someone might argue
that everything Bennett said was true and not deriving from some racist
view of blacks as criminals, but it could have a bad effect on whoever
might hear it. It might promote the view that black people are by
nature criminals. I don’t think this is a good complaint, however, even
though it’s a much better argument than the other two. I don’t much
like any argument of this form. It basically amounts to saying that we
should give in to simplistic thinking and not bother to make careful
distinctions because people might misunderstand you. It’s tantamount to
saying that we shouldn’t prmote careful thinking because people don’t
know how to think carefully.

Also check out the conversation on this issue at Hippy Dave’s to get a rounder sense of how people are taking this.

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