The “Real Scotsman” fallacy is based on an old joke where MacGregor says to MacTavish, “Every Scotsman loves haggis.”
MacTavish replies, ” I can’t stand the stuff.”
“Well then,” says MacGregor, “you’re not a real Scotsman.”
This fallacy always springs up when I try to talk to anyone in a Che Guevara t-shirt. Most modern communists refuse to accept that every time communism has been attempted, it has resulted in poverty, death, and despair. When you poi~t this out they will always claim, “Well, that wasn’t real communism.”
The popular belief is that if a nation would hold true to the tenets of Marx, peace and prosperity would reign. But they won’t acknowledge that once property rights are abolished, liberty and life always disappear shortly afterward.
There was a time when the U.S. patent office was swamped with applications for perpetual motion machines. These contraptions always worked well in the minds of their inventors, but could never be constructed, because a perpetual motion machine is prohibited by the laws of physics. The patent of- fice’s solution was to require that a working model be provided with any application submitted. The implementation of that rule has prevented any perpetual motion patents from being granted.
I suggest we implement the same rule for communists here. Until you can provide a working model, we don’t want anything to do with it.
