| >This is an all-or-nothing fallacy Not really. Pollution is uniformly unwanted by definition (without you changing the goalposts to CO2, which is naturally occurring, and the naturally occurring CO2 would not be considered as pollution, whereas human created CO2 would). In fact, let's stick with the wikipedia definition: "Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change." Outrage, on the other hand, may be very much wanted, or even required. I'm not defending ALL outrage. I'm defending that some outrage may occasionally be warranted. You saw an all or nothing fallacy where there was none. To recap - Argument: Outrage is cultural pollution. My Response: All pollution is unwanted, some outrage may be occasionally wanted or warranted. Your response: Saying pollution has no value is an all-or-nothing fallacy! The worst kind of bad reasoning is the false accusation of a fallacy. Because the person making that claim should know better. |
"Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change."
This is either an honest mistake or a pedagogical trick you're pulling. In the general point, I mean pollution in the sense people mean when they say something like "noise pollution." "Pollution" in my analogy (which isn't the same referent as above) would be excess CO2 -- in large enough quantities this is a bad thing, and everyone should know that fact. The validity of the underlying point really has nothing to do with your nitpick. Just substitute "bad thing" for that word in your head. Your whole argument vanishes, and my point remains.
Your response: ... is an all-or-nothing fallacy!...The worst kind of bad reasoning is the false accusation of a fallacy.
You do have an all or nothing fallacy, and your falsely claimed refutation is actually an irrelevant language nitpick. However, I don't find that a quarter as disturbing as the seeming attachment you have to outrage as some kind of tool for convincing others. That's not convincing. That's coercing.