[From xorcist offlist] Cloudflare & NoDAPL again w/ a ROTF

[Zenaan Harkness]

On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 08:51:18PM -0300, juan wrote:
> On Sat, 24 Sep 2016 12:01:39 -0000
> xorcist at sigaint.org wrote:

> > > 	Because there are well organized 'minorities' who are able
> > > to impose their views on the rest.
> > 
> > But it isn't rational to allow a minority to impress its will on the
> > majority.
> > 
> > So we're back to square one.
> 
> 
> 	No. It's true that if people were completely rational they
> 	would be fighting back in a rational way, but their enemy is
> 	more specialized and motivated.
> 
> 
> 
> > > 	Even if we were cleverer than the rest, it doesn't follow
> > > 	we should be in charge. And a group of stupid people
> > > controlled by a minority of marginally less stupid people is a
> > > recipe for tyranny and disaster.
> > 
> > Why not? If rational is the metric for good, then

OK, this one's gotta be nipped in the bud so to speak!

1) Rational is not the metric for good, although good may often be
   rational.

Your proposition is some sort of logical reversal which does not follow
as an absolute, at all!

2) Your propositional sentence (starting "If...") is an often times
   effective but sly tool. Nutha one for the troll tools list...



Here's a hint to everyone on still reading:

 Every sentence beginning with "if" (or similar, or that implicitly
 begins with an 'if' etc) is quite likely suspect from the get go.

"If" begins a proposition, or assertion, etc.

Such propositional sentences are easy to slip past those who are not
familiar with this communication tactic.


And in this particular example courtesy 'xorcist', we have a classic
case of a proposition implying an absolute, but in fact is not true,
yet tends to lead the reader into the fallacy. (Forgot the name of this
particular 'logical reversal', but it's a fallacy nonetheless.)


Second hint: the "more honest" or "leading the reader in critical
thinking rather than blind agreement" approach is to instead of
beginning such a sentence with "if", to begin your sentence with "I
assert that..." or "I assume it is true that..." or even "In many cases,
we can fairly assume that ...".




> > the most rational people can do the most good.
> > They'll seek to do the most good.

And here we see the logical fallacy flowing from the false
generalisation / proposition.







Alright then, carry on ...