Actions taken in response to the recent tragedy involving the murder of National Guardsman (actually a woman) by an immigrant from Afghanistan fits the classic problem of anecdotal thinking. This limitation in human cognition is common, but the manipulation of humans because of this limitation can be quite sinister.
Trump’s reaction to this tragedy reminds me of an example of flawed thinking commonly taught in Introduction to Psychology. I call it “anecdotal reasoning”. It is something we all do in daily life when we use an example to illustrate a claim we want to make. The problem with anecdotal reasoning is that it presents a limitation of generalization. Many of the claims about immigrants fit this problem and the present case represents a perfect example. The anecdote is atypical. Immigrant crime is lower in general than crime committed by citizens. However this is explained – immigrants have more to lose, immigrants are better people, etc. – is not relevant here. The fact is this is a fact. To make a case for a general strategy using a limited number of cases or a single case is not logical and if done purposefully because people easily fall for this weak type of thinking, manipulative and in some cases immoral. Muslims, those practicing or simply those from Muslim countries, do come from a different culture, but differences are also true of Americans in general. Rather than see this tragedy as a sign of some weird sleeper cell espionage conspiracy, start from the most likely scenario until proven otherwise. This seems to me to be a suicide by cop attack based on mental health issues or perceptions of betrayal and powerlessness. If you and yours are lucky enough to avoid these life challenges, you are not special, you are privileged.