Much of Loughner’s alleged Youtube writings are in the form of syllogisms, logical arguments in which a conclusion is inferred from two premises. (For example, if all dogs have tails, and Spot is a dog, then Spot must have a tail.)
It’s an exercise students use to learn logic, and something he learned in a philosophy class at Pima Community College in Arizona. Here’s an example of a syllogism attributed to Loughner:
“If the police remove you from the educational facility for talking then removing you from the educational facility for talking is unconstitutional in the United States.
“The police remove you from the educational facility for talking.
“Thus, removing you from the educational facility for talking is unconstitutional in the United States.
“This situation is fraud because the police are unconstitutional.”
Prof. Kent Slinker, who taught Loughner at Pima Community College, told Slate that the Youtube syllogisms were the type of thing Loughner would say during class.
"His thoughts were unrelated to anything in our world," Professor Slinker said.
In his writings, Loughner uses syllogisms to prove that paying college tuition and receiving a grade from his school are unconstitutional. It’s unclear whether he took his writings seriously, but another teacher, Ben McGahee, told Fox News that Loughner would write nonsensical things like “eat + sleep + brush teeth = math” on his assignments, which shows such writing was not confined to his Internet life.
