Distinction without a difference
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Distinction Without a Difference describes a logical fallacy and rhetorical ploy that involves drawing a drawing a conclusion on the assumption that different terms identify significantly different concepts when they do not.
A politically significant example of the fallacy in action is Elhanan Yakira's denunciation of a 2004 film made Eyal Sivan called Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel in which he offers the following description: "It is not a documentary film but a propagandistic one, made entirely to serve the director's ideological agenda." (p. 84) Documentary films always have ideological points of view. See Elhanan Yakira. 2010. Post-Zionism, Post-Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521127868.
An innocuous experience with the fallacy occurs in conversation with the assertion of a position that is supposedly different from another position based on the language, when in fact, both positions are exactly the same -- at least in practice or practical terms.
Logical Form:
A is not the same as the first letter in the alphabet.
Example #1:
Sergio: There is no way I would ever even consider taking dancing lessons.
Kitty: How about I ask my friend from work to teach you?
Sergio: If you know someone that is willing to teach me how to dance, then I am willing to learn, sure.
Explanation: Perhaps it is the stigma of “dancing lessons” that is causing Sergio to hold this view, but the fact is, someone teaching him how to dance is the same thing. Sergio has been duped by language.
