Comment by VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf on Rule of 400

In this case, being more accurate would have distracted from the overall point.

Granted, attracting the dismissive comments of insufferable pedants and the wilfully obtuse isn’t ideal either, but here we are 🤷

How would being more accurate distract from the point? I agree with what the post is saying, but making up statistics doesn’t really help IMO and takes away from the credibility

Hyperbole and hypotheticals aren’t “making up statistics”

It doesn’t seem like this post was meant to be hyperbolic though? Hyperbole doesn’t work well in the context of numbers. If someone said 1 in 100 people drive a Toyota, how would I differentiate that from being an actual figure or hyperbole? It’s not obvious unless you look into it. Likewise, if someone told me that 1 in 400 people in the US get shot every day I’d struggle to tell if that’s true or not, given how much I hear about gun crime over there.

This post is quite clearly framed in a way that sounds like fact.

I don’t think the personal attack is really necessary. I do legitimately want a discussion about this, but people are getting the impression that I want to distract from the point of the post, which I promise you is not my intention. I apologise if anything I’ve said has come across that way. I shall leave things here.

That’s fair, I am sorry for the language, I deleted my comment

Im pretty sure those users a legitimately, unironically autistic.

Not being abelist, just trying to prevent others from taking this argument for more than it is: someone incapable of thinking outside explicit literals.

Lol fair enough, I can understand why you’d think that.

I’m quite capable of thinking figuratively. But in the way that this post is framed, I’m pretty sure any layperson would take the figures as being based on some actual statistics. It’s deceptive, and I don’t think that’s a good look if anyone were to look into this in any detail. If you’re going to make an analogy, make it actually analogous. And if you want to use hyperbole, use it in a way that’s clear (i.e. by not mixing in numbers)

That’s not how autism works, and saying you’re not being ableist doesn’t actually mean you’re not being ableist, as you’ve demonstrated here.

(and before you even try, because I’m not coming back to debate this, I am autistic, and those assholes are just being deliberately obtuse and pedantic, throwing autistic people under the bus to defend them is gross. And if you are autistic too and think that means you can’t be ableist, let me introduce you to lateral and internalised ableism which are what your reply would be if not “run of the mill” ableism)…

now how autism works

I have aspergers, I was in special ed for two years in elementary school because I was disruptive to class. I have met hundreds if others on the spectrum in my life.

I can tell you that this is exactly how many people with autism approach situations.

What makes you say myself and the other poster are being ‘deliberately obtuse and pedantic’? It’s pretty hurtful and that is not my intention in the slightest. I’m not trying to undermine the argument made by the post, I just think it’s a valid concern when the figures don’t add up and it’s worth discussing.

“Say you’re in a room”

Okay this means it’s not presenting itself as factual information, chud

It’s not misinformation if the post starts off as a hypothetical

Some people like you aren’t capable of thinking much further than your face though

Expressing the number of people shot as a tiny fraction of 400 million people would raise at least as many questions about accuracy and make it EASIER for people like you to distract from the point by obsessing over an unimportant (to the point being made) detail.

Analogies and third decimal-accurate statistics just don’t fit together.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by ‘people like me’. To be 100% clear, I agree with the point of the post but I just don’t think they’ve gone about explaining it in the best way. To somewhat agree with what you’re saying, I’d say yes, analogies and accurate statistics don’t fit well together, but neither do analogies and statistics in general. Either stick to written analogies/hyperbole OR use actual statistics.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by ‘people like me’

Pedants, the easily sidetracked, those who will jump at the opportunity to distract from the message itself by hyperfocusing on an insignificant technical detail.

Take your pick.

You seem to have a very binary view of things though. Is it not possible for someone to agree with a message, but think we can improve on how we tell it? If we want to convince people of something, is it not best to provide as convincing an argument as possible? I’m not trying to distract from the message, I’m wondering how we can tell it better.

You seem to have a very binary view

Of distracting from the actual topic by needlessly fixating on an only tangentially relevant detail? Yeah, I’m kooky like that.

Is it not possible for someone to agree with a message, but think we can improve on how we tell it?

Sure, but that’s not what you’re doing. You’re, deliberately or not, pulling all attention away from the message by demanding a fix to something that, in the specific case, is unimportant.

If we want to convince people of something, is it not best to provide as convincing an argument as possible?

As I said before, being more exact would invite MORE distracting arguments about it, not fewer.

I’m not trying to distract from the message

You’re also not trying to NOT distract from the message either, though. Or you are and you’re doing a piss-poor job of it.

I’m wondering how we can tell it better

It was told just fine. You’re actively obscuring the salient point with your pedantry.

Ok so you’re saying that you need to outright lie to get people to side with you?

That makes you sound like a politician, not a human rights advocate, but sure

Burning Man called. They want their gigantic strawman back.

How about you address the fact that you’re saying that telling the truth would distract from the point instead of pulling up distractions? Sounds like whataboutism to me

Let me put it another way.

There’s 4,947,342.562 kinds of people in the world: those who obsess over needless numeral exactitude when faced with a rhetorical argument, and those who don’t.

Hyperbole and hypotheticals aren’t “outright lies”

Exact and false numbers given as proportions aren’t hyperbole, they’re misrepresentations, ie lies.

“Say you’re in a room”

It’s literally at the start of the post. Anyone who has eyes and can read now understands this is hypothetical

It’s a hypothetical. Not misinformation. It’s a hypothetical argument meant to make a philosophical point, not to be a case study on sociological statistics

You fucking dipshits getting hung up on the wrong thing means you don’t have enough brain cells to process the argument at hand.

Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.

Rule: You must post before you leave.

^other ^rules

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