What is the origin of the expression “parade of horribles”?
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: * The “horribles” are not likely to occur as a result of the action, an appeal to probability, * The argument relies solely on the emotional impact of the “horribles”, an appeal to emotion,
