A politicians logic

TrabiRobert · 177.2K views · 2008-03-15 · 0:23

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Overview

A very short clip from Yes, Prime Minister in which Sir Arnold and Sir Humphrey run through a piece of circular political reasoning. It is the origin of the so-called politician's logic.

On Hacker News

HN uses it as a joke reference to the politician's fallacy, to mock reasoning of the form 'something must be done, this is something, so do it'.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2017–2026

Topics

Satire & parody Film & TV clips US politics & elections

What people said

cjs_ac · 2026-02 · Joke / meme
Ignoring all the tedious 'no, you're a bad person for having different priorities and beliefs to me' comments that this will inevitably inspire, I have to ask: why does the operating system need to be involved in this? The intended target of the regulation seems to be app stores. Someone has fallen victim to Politician's Logic: [VIDEO]
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lolinder · 2025-02 · Joke / meme
> legislation is kind of the point of a government in the first place I would personally consider legislation to be but one means to an end, with the point of a (democratic) government actually being to ensure stability and prosperity for its citizens. In that framework, "leading with legislation" doesn't make any sense—you can lead with results, but the legislation is not itself a result! Lead with development or lead with standard of living or lead with civil rights, but don't lead with legislation. Your formulation sounds like politician's logic: "something must be done, this is something, therefore we must do it". Legislation as an end in itself. Very interesting. [VIDEO]
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braythwayt · 2017-01 · Joke / meme
The politician's fallacy: "Something must be done. This is something. Therefore we must do it. But doing the wrong thing is worse than doing nothing." [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by TrabiRobert, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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