[doodlebugging]

The presence of maybe does indeed denote that there is a possibility that the statement referenced could be true or untrue.

>Or maybe they rape and beat their woman, suffer from high infant mortality and often die excruciating deaths after moderate injuries like a broken arm or cut.

The comment as written though leaves no doubt about the intent of the commenter which appears to me to be demonizing people from another culture with no evidence offered to support their demonization.

I have read material in several of the links supplied in this thread and so far have found no evidence of rape, spousal abuse, child abuse or neglect, etc.

The links supplied by others, including a link in one to a web archive of most chapters of a book by a group called "The Andaman Association" have so far in the sections that I have read, made no mention of these things. That post and the link were deleted before I finished composing a reply but the post had some good information about regional language families, potential origins of the people on North Sentinel Island, etc.

Anyway, the user who made that comment left no doubt about which side of the maybe they agreed with and that is why I have responded as I have. Their biases are quite apparent.

You are correct though that maybe definitely means maybe and clearly suggests in general usage that things could go either way.

[emmelaich]

Has there has ever been a society without rape and other violence? Sure, maybe North Sentinelese are an exception.

Certainly, some tendency to violence is evident.

[rendx]

Errr, yes, it looks like plenty? You may want to read up on tribal cultures. I suggest the 1978 classic "Columbus and Other Cannibals" by historian Jack D. Forbes as a start, it's a short read.

[Chris2048]

> The comment as written though leaves no doubt

> the user who made that comment left no doubt

Can you back that lack of doubt up with anything? Or is it a function of your own eagerness to construct a straw-man?

[doodlebugging]

>Can you back that lack of doubt up with anything? Or is it a function of your own eagerness to construct a straw-man?

You're asking whether a set of replies to a user named xadhominemx are straw man arguments when that user has taken each opportunity to live up to the implications of their user name.

I'm not sure I can help you if you are having trouble spotting the obvious bias in their replies.

In the universe of possible responses to the part of my original comment at the top of this thread that they extracted for their initial reply they specifically chose to attack the beliefs of the people characterizing them as "absurd".

When reminded that many cultures that do not have written histories have been found to convey their traditions and knowledge orally in stories and songs over many generations, they replied with another, more vicious cultural attack instead of a rational acknowledgement that perhaps they had forgotten something they may have had an opportunity to learn during some part of their education.

In that reply they suggested an alternate view that the people are rapists who abuse their spouses and neglect their children. This is another instance where they chose an attack over a rational conclusion supported by evidence.

When I challenged their objectivity they doubled down on their earlier replies confirming their own biases in the process.

Then they skipped the thread when I suggested that their biases were showing and that they should educate themselves.

I'm not seeing a straw man here.

The points that I made and they took issue to are supported by anthropological research and historical accounts and their suggestions have no supporting basis in fact when you dig into the links that I have provided and that others have provided on the thread.

xadhominemx clearly stepped into a thread with an agenda driven by their personal biases and when challenged with facts, skipped out without offering any support of their own biased agenda.

No straw man. Perhaps you agree with xadhominemx in some or all of the things they suggested and you stand ready to offer supporting arguments that they have chosen to dodge. I'll follow this thread for a while because I like interesting discussions.

I appreciate your reply and look forward to the next installment.