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This is a corollary of the fallacy of relative privation, aka the “kids are starving in Africa so you have no right to complain about anything less severe” fall
by MontyCarloHall 3y ago
This is a corollary of the fallacy of relative privation, aka the “kids are starving in Africa so you have no right to complain about anything less severe” fallacy. Both fallaciously dismiss arguments by comparing them to unrealistic extremes.
- mistermann 3y agoIf the "so you have no right to complain" part actually happened. Many people (including smart ones) throw around popular memes with little regard for whether they are using them legitimately. This meme has excellent potential for that as the definition is subjective, but not explicitly disclosed as such creating a dependence on the reader to realize this. Another excellent point: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36076175 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36076175
- Loquebantur 3y agoFunny you would respond with a fallacious comparison. Relative privation is not fallacious because comparison was useless. Kids do starve (realistic) and there is even worse in the world (so not an extreme either). But you need to choose by some metric where to use your abilities, if you don't want to end up being an egotistic hedonist. You should help to right wrongs in ways amenable to your abilities, not more, not less. Honesty is key obviously, both ways.
- MontyCarloHall 3y agoRelative privation is fallacious because the logical existence of a bad problem isn’t negated by the existence of a worse problem. Nobody is claiming that the worse problem is fallacious, but rather that it doesn’t logically invalidate the bad problem. For example, the statement “a lot of people died on 9/11” is not logically negated by the statement “but a lot more people died during WW2”; the fact that the latter statement is true has no bearing on the validity of the former statement. Or to bring it back to Africa, the statement “there is food insecurity in America” is not negated by the statement “but there are famines in Africa.”
- Loquebantur 3y agoYou are misunderstanding the context of the comparison. Those statements are not meant to negate the factual content, they relativize the respective importance. One should direct one's energies where they make the best contribution. For that, one has to compare alternatives.
- atleastoptimal 3y agoOr "Do whatever I say because there's a slight chance if you don't follow my arbitrary rules you will be tortured forever by one of the characters in my arcane storybook"
- mcphage 3y agoIsn’t that just Roko’s Basilisk?