Jonestown
...did not obey, they were punished. The pressure would come from many different people. Jones would speak over a loud speaker forcing people to obey and his devout followers would make sure no negative statements were made against Jones. Jones committed many fallacies in convincing the people to be his followers. One of the fallacies he committed was appeal to popularity. This is the “bandwagon argument.” To increase the feeling of belonginess, people felt as if they needed to join the Jonestown group. There was a lot of peer pressure. If a person at Jonestown felt what Jones was doing was wrong, they could not criticize him because if they did, they would be seen as an outsider. They accepted Jones because many wanted approval from their friends and associates. He also committed false dichotomy fallacies. Jones said there was two alternatives. Be part of Jonestown and live happily, or live in an evil world where their kids will be snatched. In reality there were many alternatives. From the movie, one can see there was an appeal to unqualified authority, which is Jim Jones. The people of Jonestown believed everything he is said because he was seen as an authority figure. Jones committed many fallacies in order to receive the obedience of his followers. Before everyone died, Jones committed another false dichotomy fallacy. He was trying to make everyone take the cyanide. In order to do so, Jones said everyone had two choices. One, take the cyanide and “protest the conditions of an inhumane world,” or two, live and life will be worse than death. This massacre shows how powerful propaganda can actually be. While watching the film, I kept on thinking why someone would fall for Jim Jones’s tactics. Then I noticed how many fallacies Jones was using and how persuasive his words could be. I still am completely shocked that someone could be convinced so easily to move to a new town and live basically under a dictatorship, however after analyzing his words, I can start to begin to see why his argument was convincing. I do not think that it was onl...