"Every year for the past 200 years it has been a tradition at this university with this fraternity to leave our clothes behind and try to survive in the wilderness in winter for 10 days." So what if a few of our members get frostbite and have to have their toes amputated. With the powerful history behind this activity, it lets each of our members participate in something bigger than himself, toes or not!" Which fallacy is this?

Faulty appeal to tradition

Explanation: The appeal to tradition fallacy (known as appeal to common practice) is a kind of fallacy which occurs when a person claims that an action or belief must be true.

The appeal to tradition fallacy is based on a false assumption that if something has been done a particular way for a long time, or traditionally, it is necessarily the proper way of doing it.

there are conflicting perceptions. what cannot be denied is that despite a long history of discrimination, they finally chose to bow out in grace and handed over power to the majority. it was a painful experience for them to part with their prerogatives and some chose to leave the country. however, they did decide to bite the bullet and go through the process with minimum obstructions.

presently, whites are still a force to reckon with. they are well educated, have technical and business expertise, they understand imperatives of good governance and are responsible for keeping south africa connected with developed countries. despite a bitter history, they are useful team members of the south african team.