Home For Fiction – Blog

for thinking people

ignorance

The Appeal to Nature Fallacy

September 5, 2018

Philosophy

fallacy, ignorance, LGBT, marketing, nature

Remember those commercials that talk about “only natural flavors” in a certain product? Caramels with natural flavors must be better than those with artificial ones, right? Well, not exactly. In actual fact, this designation only refers to the way a certain chemical is extracted. But it sure sounds better if you write “natural” on the package! Welcome to the Appeal to Nature Fallacy.

The Appeal to Nature Fallacy is… not really a fallacy, strictly speaking. It’s more of rhetorical trickery, rather, as the speaker tries to validate his or her argument by appealing to nature. One of the most notorious Appeal to Nature examples you might have seen is when someone homophobic attacks gay people claiming it’s “against nature”.

There are several different problems with this, so let’s see them one by one.

appeal to nature fallacy
Raise your hand (or wing) if you’re a part of Nature
(more…)

Misunderstanding Books: The Era of the Unsophisticated Reader

August 8, 2018

Literature

art, book, fiction, ignorance, literature, mediocrity, misunderstanding, society

Some time ago, I read a bizarre “review” (more about it in a moment) of a book I had read myself. The reviewer had written something in the direction of “I kept reading thinking that it’d get better, but it never did. The story was left unresolved.” That was basically it, that was the review. I’ve talked before about reviewing books fairly, but today we’ll tackle another issue: that of misunderstanding books.

It goes without saying that this was not a review. You can’t spend two lines (or even two hundred) saying simply “I didn’t like it” and claim this is a review. Perhaps we could call it a “rating rationale” though semantics isn’t the crucial factor here. Rather, I’d like to focus on something far more serious. Something that has far-reaching consequences for the current state as well as the future of our societies.

misunderstanding books
“What do you mean ‘misunderstanding books?'”
(more…)

Elitism Is Mediocrity: Two Sides of the Same Coin

August 2, 2018

Society

change, elitism, idiocy, ignorance, injustice, mediocrity, meritocracy, social masses, society

Long-term readers of this blog will recognize that one of its themes is mediocrity. Perhaps the world has always been like that, but the digital revolution has exacerbated the problem. People become more self-centered (more idiotai in other words), and focus not on the long-term collective good but on temporary, meaningless personal gain. Some might think that, in such a context, being “elite” is the counterbalance. But just as “ham” and “hammock” are two vastly different things, so is being elite and being elitist. Elitism is mediocrity. It’s simply a different aspect of the same thing.

elitism is mediocrity
Elitism is mediocrity, only in a fancier package
(more…)