I devote a separate section to these forms of ignoring the point because they are some of the commonest methods of misrepresentation used in unscrupulous propaganda and controversy.
Extension consists of attributing to an opponent a contention that he has not really made or interpreting that contention in terms unfair to him. It often takes the form of attacking a more extreme form of the proposition which an opponent is putting forward or defending. A., shall we say, makes a moderately worded Statement beginning Some . . . B. will be guilty of extension if he attacks A. as if he had said All . Jones defends the government's policy on Social Security. Smith retorts: "From the way you talk, this measure will abolish poverty, want and disease: in fact, it's going to bring about perfect bliss and contentment—the return of the Golden Age. Another Utopian dream." Robinson argues that all war is wrong. Tompkins, instead of attacking this contention, devotes himself to rebutting the more extreme contention that it is always wrong to use force, and this, of course, is a much easier thing to do — it gives him more chance to hold up Robinson's views to ridicule. And Tompkins, and people like him, often make a pretence of taking up their attitude on logical grounds: they will preface their extension device by saying, "logically speaking . . .," or "to be logically consistent . . .," or "if you carry Robinson's argument to its logical conclusion, it means . . ." In other words also is a common phrase used in extension to introduce a gross misinterpretation of an opponent's proposition. "You advocate the nationalisation of all Banks? In other words, you're a red-hot communist."
Diversion is also used with similar intentions. It is a common device of speakers and hecklers at political meetings for scoring cheap debating points or raising laughter, and so evading the point at issue. Here are two examples I heard recently:
(Readers will find plenty of examples of material fallacies among the miscellaneous questions at the end of this book.)