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by mystified5016 528 days ago
"Yeah and what if you just forget to use your fancy equipment? Not so smart now, huh?!"

You totally showed them

1 comments

An observation on how this has become extremely common nowadays.

Here, at work, in real life. People just argue with whatever dumb thing they can come up with, for the sake of arguing, it makes them feel smart. It's really hard to have a meaningful conversation with them.

I go to a couple philosophical discussion groups and the occasional town hall meeting. People just can't get their imaginary needs satisfied.

"But that area seems unsafe"

"We could hire a security guard to be around"

"But what if the security guard is a criminal, like in that one episode of muh favorite tv show"

"We could do an extensive background check, work with companies that have a good reputation, ..."

"But what if they make all that up, I saw that in a movie"

And nothing. ever. gets. done.

Btw, I've even seen people get a small round of applause by their peers after making one of such arguments irl. This comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn200lvmTZc.

This is basically how every discussion around building more transit in Seattle goes. The town hall meetings feel like an episode of Parks and Rec.
Isn’t it by definition that the median person making an argument will be mediocre?