[Glenn E. Meyer]

In the article, the term moral panic is used. It is when you must do something - even if it violates basic rights.

We are not immune from it. Look at one of our threads that asks for pre-emptive moves against people if a doc wants to report you based on their opinion alone.

Psychiatric gulags and denial of gun rights based on flimsey evidence appeals to some of the gun world.

Some want to ban video games as they are sure they are causal despite the data suggesting no strong link. But our posters know better. You have to do something!

Today, I heard at a match a discussion of the Boston Marathon and one 'gentleman' wanted Japanese WWII internment camps. Some much for the Constitution. BTW - he was met with stoney silence - well deserved IMHO.

So fallacies in reasoning based on emotion or other logical flaws are common, even to us.