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A parade of horribles is both a literal parade and a rhetorical device.
As a literal parade "Parade of horribles" originally referred to a literal parade of people wearing comic and grotesque costumes, rather like the Philadelphia Mummers Parade. It was a traditional feature of Fourth-of-July parades in parts of the U. S. in the nineteenth century. As of 2005, some communities, notably Chepachet, Rhode Island, continue to hold them. As a rhetorical device A parade of horribles is also a rhetorical device whereby the speaker argues against taking a certain course of action by listing a number of extremely undesirable events which will ostensibly result from the action. Its power lies in the emotional impact of the unpleasant predictions; however, a parade of horribles is a logical fallacy insofar as: A parade of horribles is a type of hyperbole because it exaggerates the negative results of the action. It is similar to a slippery slope argument, but not identical. Whereas a slippery slope argument argues that, "If we do this, then the next thing we do will be this," a parade of horribles argues that, "If we do this, then ultimately all these horrible things will happen." Example: | ||||||||
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