5 ms·
This sort of wishy washy argument (seemingly accepted by generally educated/reasonable people on HN) is the reason that society is so scientifically illiterate.
by nickysielicki 5y ago
This sort of wishy washy argument (seemingly accepted by generally educated/reasonable people on HN) is the reason that society is so scientifically illiterate. It has nice sounding arguments that embed themselves into your thought patterns but zero real substance. Articles like this are how you get hordes of people to believe something without cause. The next time you see someone act "bad" online, you'll be able to excuse yourself for thinking, "that person has 'psychological issues'" instead of thinking any deeper. You saw an article about that, after all.
The plural of anecdote is not evidence.
- okareaman 5y agoYou don't say what is wishy washy or give any supporting evidence to your assertion that HN users seemingly fall for such arguments or how "nice sounding" arguments embed themselves into our thought patterns to control us or how these wishy washy nice sounding arguments lead us to dismiss people. You sound like you may have psychological issues and I say this as a non-neurotypical (bipolar)
- nickthemagicman 5y agoThat's a little ad hominem to diagnose them from one paragraph. There's actually a well known term for what they're describing. It's called pop science and is a very real thing.
- nickysielicki 5y agoI'm pretty sure they're joking.
- okareaman 5y agoYes, I made myself laugh. As a bipolar, I often find things funny that other people don't.
- falldmg 5y agoUnfortunately, your critique has even less substantiation than the article, and therefore it would be even sillier to draw conclusions from it...
- nickysielicki 5y agoThat's only really a fair criticism if I had written an entire article about why this article is bad. Of course a comment about an article will have less substance than an article, that doesn't excuse this article from failing to meet the higher bar that ought to exist for an article.
- falldmg 5y agoNo, I disagree. Your critique is shallow even for it's relative prominence. The article literally opens with a counterpoint that you shouldn't generally use this as an excuse. What you said in your comment acts almost as perfect critique for itself: it sounds right, but it has zero substance. Why should anyone value a critique that says almost zero actual things about the article and instead draws a general conclusion that sounds like it came from purely reading the headline?
- slingnow 5y agoHaving the article state that you "shouldn't use it as an excuse" is probably about as effective as the surgeon generals warning on the side of a pack of cigarettes. What makes you believe that quick disclaimer would discredit the claim the OP is making?
- falldmg 5y agoThis is an invalid critique of the article. It is critiquing it for something it doesn't do, now justified by the idea that people might ignore what it actually says.