Can You Coin a Phrase? "Sour Grapes" versus...

[Boojatta]

... Nutritious Big Macs?

The "sour grapes" error (famous from Aesop's fable) is faulty reasoning about grapes: they are unavailable to you, and you conclude that they are undesirable (specifically, sour). The conclusion is unsupported.

A person who regularly and habitually consumes at least one Big Mac every week might claim that, "One Big Mac every week is a sensible choice and one small part of a nutritious, well-balanced diet."

What is a phrase that's better than "Nutritious Big Macs" to indicate the error of starting with the fact that some practice is the status quo, and jumping to the conclusion that the practice is good?

[Electric Monk]

1. Appeal to common practice

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-common-practice.html

[Warpy]

2. How about this?

Sarah Palin was elected governor of Alaska, therefore Sarah Palin is educated, intellectual, competent, articulate, accomplished...and the list goes on ad nauseum.

Ask any of her fans.

Your phrase would be a positive adjective and Sarah Palin.

An equivalent negative might be applied to nutritional powerhouses like spinach, Brussels sprouts or liver, calling them unhealthful because a lot of people dislike them.

It's a pretty common inhabitant of the Fallacy Zoo.

[lame54]

3. compassionate conservative

[zeemike]

4. Not sure what you are looking for.

But "Big Mack Frankinfood" comes to mind.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Capitalism is the American way, therefore free markets are good for the economy.

[L. Coyote]

6. maybe ??

WIKI: The Fox and the Grapes is a fable attributed to Aesop.

One hot summer's day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. "Just the thing to quench my thirst," quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: "I am sure they are sour."

.....

The fable illustrates the concept of cognitive dissonance, which occurs when a person tries to hold incompatible ideas simultaneously. Dissonance is reduced by altering one of the belief or desire states, even if it leads to irrational behavior.<1>

A modern variant on the tale is the following joke from the comedian Mitch Hedberg: "Sometimes in the middle of the night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen's too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny."

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Meaning: Acting meanly after a disappointment, denigration and disdain for that which one could not attain.

The phrase occurs in the Bible, in Ezekiel 18:2
What mean ye by this common proverb ... The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the childrens teeth are set on edge?

The false disdain of the parent passes on to the child. ??

Sour Grapes vs. Rational Fruits

[PCIntern]

7. E Pluribus Unum...Oh , sorry,

that's phrasing a coin...

[ZeitgeistObserver]

12. Aaargh, that's really bad!

Thank you, I loved it! :)

[left is right]

8. the phrase you are looking for is “sweet lemons"

meaning something like: this is all you got and you better make the best of it no matter how sour/bitter it really is"

[Boojatta]

11. That's not the meaning that I'm looking for!

I want a phrase that means there is an alternative, but people cling to the status quo and invent spurious justifications for the status quo. When there is truly no alternative, it's a different situation.

[customerserviceguy]

9. How about "Everybody does it."

That seems to sum up for me what you're talking about.

[rucky]

10. "More doctors prefer Camel to any other brand of cigarette"

here's proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMzjJjuxQI&feature=player_embedded