Fig Leaf Inclusion

A Fig Leaf Inclusion is an attempt to provide protection for some policy or action by exclusively mentioning the few benefits of that policy or action. It's often used to defend the people who promulgate some policy in the same vein. The benefits are often listed in a Gish Gallop fashion.

For example, consider the Death of Pablo Escobar, consequences of which include:

• loss of funding for hospitals in Medellín
• stalled housing projects in Comuna Nororiental
• deterioration of soccer fields
• increased unemployment

All of these things are, indeed, true. But if you were to consider them the only results of Pablo Escobar's death you would be forced to conclude that it was a sad end to a saintly human being - something that is unlikely to have been true.

Usual markers of this technique being in action are:

• the use of the word 'include'
• long lists of things with no sense of relative importance

For projects that spend money, this is usually a long list of the benefits with no sense of what percentage was actually spent on them. For example, one might embezzle a billion dollars and describe the operation as including "creating jobs" to the tune of a million dollars. Excluding the relative importance of the benefits vs. the costs is a technique to hide the fact that the benefits are on a different scale.