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You mean that one anecdote does not invalidate another?
by judahmeek 6y ago
You mean that one anecdote does not invalidate another?
- bryanrasmussen 6y agoit's true that one anecdote does not invalidate another, but assuming truthfulness of both anecdotes the first anecdote seems more wide ranging and likely to give a better view of problems in the system.
- nojster 6y agoThen I could counter argue with another anecdote that I visited thousands of such facilities and in all of them cases of magic healing once the insurance money dried up happened. Merely extending the scope of an anecdote does not change the fact that it is an anecdote and does not provide greater power to convince.
- tmpz22 6y agoThe original comment claimed to be an EMT. That makes their comment a professional experience or professional opinion where as yours is an anecdote.
- dingoegret 6y agoProfessional experience? Inventing new speak for anecdotes on the fly, bravo.
- ALittleLight 6y agoHow is that the case? The first anecdote is someone with only glancing knowledge of the people taken to the mental health facility. They pick them up, probably on a very bad day, and drop them off without seeing evidence of wrongdoing. What evidence would they see? A mustachioed doctor twirling his mustache and laughing maniacally? By contrast, the other anecdote has intimate knowledge of an individual affected by the system for the course of their involvement with it. I don't think either anecdote is compelling, but I do think it is wrong to weigh one as greater than the other.
- warent 6y agoThis is fundamentally the problem of anecdotes and why objective data is needed to resolve these circular arguments
- fellow_human 6y agoNot to mention the fact that neither comment says which country or region they're based in. I suspect these things can vary a lot by geography, yet both are making very generalized statements.
- afarrell 6y ago> objective data A single anecdote is an existence proof. (or a lie or misunderstanding)
- sokoloff 6y agoTrue. Further complicating matters, I believe there is a correlation between misunderstanding and willingness to share anecdotes (across the general population, not specific to this thread).
- docmars 6y agoWhich may be indicative there is not enough data available to support a conclusion, so a person operates with the information most available to them, which may count as a contribution to that data ultimately.
- NoOneNew 6y agoTo be fair, one anecdote is the viewpoint from the eyes of someone in the "system" while the other is a viewpoint of those affected by the system. Its essentially recreating the initial conversation of police vs people. One side says all good in the neighborhood, the other says corruption is still a problem.
- GavinMcG 6y agoFor one thing, we frequently see many of the same patients again, back on the street or in their communities, which is pretty definitive reason to think they're not locked up indefinitely.
- afarrell 6y agoThe existence of houses which are not fire does not mean the risk of house fires is unworthy of consideration.
- bluntfang 6y agoI think it's more along the lines of one anecdote doesn't invalidate Occam's razor, and the Occam's razor in this scenario is that psych facilities are acting in good faith.