Flag-waving is a fallacious argument or

propaganda technique A number of propaganda techniques based on social psychological research are used to generate propaganda. Many of these same techniques can be classified as logical fallacies, since propagandists use arguments that, while sometimes convincing, ar ...

used to justify an action based on the undue connection to nationalism or patriotism or benefit for an idea, group or country. It is a variant of

argumentum ad populum In argumentation theory, an (Latin for "appeal to the people") is a fallacious argument which is based on claiming a truth or affirming something is good because the majority thinks so. Alternative names Other names for the fallacy includ ...

. This fallacy

appeals to emotion Appeal to emotion or ''argumentum ad passiones'' (meaning the same in Latin) is an informal fallacy characterized by the manipulation of the recipient's emotions in order to win an argument, especially in the absence of factual evidence. This kind ...

instead to logic of the audience aiming to

manipulate Manipulation may refer to: * Manipulation (psychology) - the action of manipulating someone in a clever or unscrupulous way *Crowd manipulation - use of crowd psychology to direct the behavior of a crowd toward a specific action ::* Internet mani ...

them to win an argument. All ad populum fallacies are based on the presumption that the recipients already have certain beliefs, biases, and prejudices about the issue. If flag-waving is based on connecting to some symbol of patriotism or nationalism it is a form of appeal to stirring symbols which can be based on undue connection not only to nationalism but also to some religious or cultural symbols—for example, a politician appearing on TV with children, farmer, teacher, together with the "common" man, etc. The act of flag-waving is a superficial display of support or loyalty to, for example, a

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective Identity (social science), identity of a group of people unde ...

or a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flag-waving Appeals to emotion Nationalism Symbols