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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35591 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023

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you're flipping the direction and standard of proof for a proposition; a person who says the correlative studies aren't cause-effect isn't making the positive claim that tobacco has no effects

one contrarian belief is difficult enough to defend against status quo piling on of people who likely have next to zero actual familiarity with any of the evidence in this case, but you go further and attempt to get them to defend entirely different things in order to give an opportunity for more bullying/sneering and argument by attrition where you levy onto them even more levels of effort and ink spilling

it's akin to a person who has some conspiracy theory about x and then attempting to get them to defend big foot or chemicals making the frogs gay or whatever else (edit: looking back this is unfair as there is a much stronger connection between the situations you talked about and tobacco than rando conspiracy theory x to rando conspiracy theory y/z)

you're flipping the direction and standard of proof for a proposition; a person who says the correlative studies aren't cause-effect isn't making the positive claim that tobacco has no effects.

I'm attempting to learn how far their contrarianism extends. If they agree that other particulates, smokes, fumes and vapors cause lung diseases and cancers, then that begs the question why tobacco smoke in particular should be the exception. if they think black lung and silicosis and so on are likewise myths, well, that is useful information.

it's a good argument tactic on the interwebs

the reason it's good is because it requires little effort or knowledge on your part and shifts the burden onto them for disbelief instead of where it correctly lays which is on the person making the positive case against tobacco in the first place

The first question in any conversation is "is my opposite speaking in good faith?" In doubtful cases, reasonable questions that answer that question, preferably without being rude, are highly beneficial.

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