Here is an example of a bad argument calling for affirmative action which uses appeal to pity:
If you care about our country at all and all of the homeless people who have nowhere to sleep at night, then you will vote democrat in the next election.
This is a very bad argument because there is no apparent connection between the premise and the conclusion. It calls upon the pity of the reader by mentioning taking care of our country and the less fortunate people who live here, but it doesn’t state a reasonable way to fix the problems it mentions. It would be a much better argument if it explained how voting democrat would in turn help the country and the homeless people who live here.
I really like the example argument you used to show a call for affirmative action. As you mentioned, the statement uses pity to trick voters into thinking they will be helping these homeless people if they vote for a democrat in the election. However, there is no connection that ties the homeless people to the Democrats. The argument may have been slightly better if they had at least explained what Democrats would do to help homeless people. Instead, they only rely on an appeal to pity to gain the attention of readers rather than providing valid support for their argument. I understand these types of arguments much better after reading you post.
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