On a less happy note, an article about green jobs popped up today and irritated me no end. I could use my line-item veto power to expunge the inaccuracies from the article, but NPR is claiming I'm not allowed. Something about not being employed with them or some nonsense. So instead, I offer a sample quote that I will scoff at:
"The fact that people aren't willing to spend the money to weatherize their own buildings says that it's not worth the money," Kreutzer says. "Now ... the federal government — have they decided that it's now worth it where it wasn't worth it six months ago when they had more money? That seems odd."
Uhm, sir, many people avoid doing things that will have a long-term net gain because they can't afford the short-term costs. Seriously, has this individual even looked at the numbers? From what I can see from the article, he's using fallacious arguments (anyone want to help me out with what the actual fallacy is) to try to prove his idiotic view of how the government should spend our money.
All for now. I'm off to check on CES news and look for which fallacy that person was using.
Update: The logical fallacy above could be "affirming the consequent" or "correlation proves causation." As we all know, correlation does not imply causation, yet this person tried it and NPR let him get away with it. Or it might even be a different one. You pick.
[Thank you Wikipedia for helping my poor memory. When are the brain implants going to be available so I can more quickly know everything?]
5 comments:
That's why I prefer internet interaction; I don't have to admit my lack of detailed knowledge. I am quite adept at quickly referencing an internet resource to confirm my vague conceptual understanding of whatever the topic may be. For the most part I avoid actually partaking in actual conversations that might reach any depth. That isn't very difficult around here. In fact I am considered to be quite knowledgeable by my peers and the students I work with. Though I don't know if I should take much comfort or pride in being smarter than the types of students who would need someone like me to help them read an elementary level book.
Also, I have found that NPR is pretty receptive to inaccuracies and corrections. One time they had a story about the future missions to the moon and Mars in which they gave the height of the proposed Ares V rocket as 39 feet. I'm sure I am not the only one that wrote to tell them that this was a blatantly obvious error, but they did change it eventually. I had thought maybe they had meant to use 'stories' rather than 'feet'. As the rocket dimensions are somewhere around 381 feet. But they just changed it to: Over 300 feet. Far less precise in my mind.
I also had a nice interaction with a writer in San Francisco when I emailed him to ask if he had meant to unequivocally state that Mad Cow Disease in animals was linked to humans. He politely responded that he agreed that there is a missing link, but the evidence was too strong to suggest any other cause. Seemed like a nice guy.
And I have no problem using vague generalities in conversation with most people, or just making stuff up, because I know I'm right and they won't bother to check. ;)
Wow, I can't believe NPR wouldn't let you edit something on their site. Bummer. I sometimes read articles that bug the crap out of me too, so I know how you feel. I'll have to go check out the original article now....
This kid in a Greenpeace jacket stopped me on the street Thursday and tried to talk me into wind energy or something. He said, "Come on give me a high five for wind energy." I gave him one because I wanted to be left alone and I thought that was a unique way to talk me into his point of view. Yeah, I'm not sure what he was trying to get out of it. He said, "The wind is already here and it's free...." Both true and good points, I guess. I agree that people do not do things that might be good in the long term because they can't afford the immediate costs. It's like, "Thanks for the tax break in buying an EV but how the hell can I pay for the EV right now?"
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