Us for Them

It is merely irritating - or simply ignorable - when a fan says that "we" won the Super Bowl. It is only a slight confusion of terms. It has little effect on society except for instilling marginal intellectual sloth and promoting armchair participation.

But Frédéric Bastiat pointed out a much more nefarious form of the same fallacy:

"Socialism, like the old policy from which it emanates, confounds Government and society. And so, every time we object to a thing being done by Government, it concludes that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of education by the State—then we are against education altogether. We object to a State religion—then we would have no religion at all. We object to an equality which is brought about by the State then we are against equality, etc., etc. They might as well accuse us of wishing men not to eat, because we object to the cultivation of corn by the State."

- The Law, Bastiat (Mises edition)