The False Positive Fallacy

It’s a common refrain: “One is too many.”

In its most basic application, it’s a call for reinvigorated policy or increased support. One hungry child is too many. One homeless veteran is too many. In this form, it’s assumed figurative. Nobody really expects to house every mentally ill veteran by year’s end. They just want a bigger effort.

In its most mentally ill form, “one is too many” operates as a rhetorical set of brakes. Its use is tantamount to ending a policy altogether, so we can “reform” or, in extreme cases, “abolish.”

One unarmed black man shot by police is too many.

That was the most recent and most pernicious deployment of OITM political cudgel. It had disastrous results, starting with a national political platform that posited, with all seriousness, abolishing the police.