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> I consider it to be a gish gallop that bombards you with a bunch of negative claims, many of which are false or at best, specious. Is it me or is this a comm
by zymhan 7y ago
> I consider it to be a gish gallop that bombards you with a bunch of negative claims, many of which are false or at best, specious.
Is it me or is this a common trope of blog posts that hit the top of HN?
- AmericanChopper 7y ago“Everything is actually terrible” is arguably the most popular topic on HN.
- rumanator 7y agoIn a world that's bombarded with PR teams dedicated to pass the message that product X is by far the best thing ever, posts pointing out that product X actually has downsides are more than welcomed. Otherwise, the PR people are the only ones doing the talking.
- AmericanChopper 7y agoI wasn’t talking exclusively about products at all. But even then, I don’t see a moral high ground in pushing negative hyperbole as a response to a perceived excess of positive hyperbole. Both seem equally fallacious to me.
- dang 7y agoGeneric claims about HN are almost always an afterimage of things you disliked, because we're more likely to notice those and they make by far the strongest impressions.
- jerf 7y agoNon-interactive media naturally tend to look like gish gallops, because there is no interruption to the flow. If you follow the Wikipedia link given, you'll see the term comes from formal debates, where it's more relevant. In formal debates, the technique can be quite effective; in blog posts, it just leads to fiskings. You briefly have a monopoly on your soap box, but you have no power to prevent other people from monopolizing theirs with a response.