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I’ve already gone on a 20 minute rant about jewish power with two right leaning family members. They are listening. One of them said twice: “that can’t be right. Do you have a source?” And I had one handy for him. He wanted me to text him more information out of curiosity. Happy Thanksgiving!!

I’ve already gone on a 20 minute rant about jewish power with two right leaning family members. They are listening. One of them said twice: “that can’t be right. Do you have a source?” And I had one handy for him. He wanted me to text him more information out of curiosity. Happy Thanksgiving!!

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[–] • 0 pt

Requesting a source is not an appeal to authority. Without the ability to request sources, you’re saying that everyone in a debate should just take the word of their opponent. If I tell you that there was a mass gun confiscation in the northern US in 1930, are you just going to believe me? Or are you going to ask me where I learned that?

[–] • 0 pt

Without the ability to request sources, you’re saying that everyone in a debate should just take the word of their opponent.

No, I'm saying they should put off relying on the appeals to authority while in the conversation and humor said conversation so it doesn't play out like this:

person 1 talking about topic X person 2 asks for sources person 1, "I don't have them" person 2, "okay then we're done here"

This disrupts discourse. The reliance upon appeals to authority in conversation halts any advancement of conversation. You can't possibly think I think no one should source anything they say. But sourcing isn't evidence of truth - it's just pointing to something another person has said before you and in order to think critically, you have to be able to explain yourself beyond, "yeah, I made it up." You're misrepresenting what I'm saying.

[–] • 0 pt

You keep using appeal to authority and requesting a source interchangeably. They are not the same thing.

Requesting a source is “I’ve never heard of this, where did you learn it?”

Appeal to authority, a logical fallacy, is “This person has a Master’s degree in _______ so obviously their opinion is the correct one.” Alternatively, it’s “That person is not an expert in _______ so their opinion is worthless.”

[–] • 0 pt

Why are you adamant about delineating between appealing to authority and asking for sources?

I don't need someone else to think for me, but I do recognize the use of reference material and I made that very clear:

sourcing isn't evidence of truth - it's just pointing to something another person has said before you and in order to think critically, you have to be able to explain yourself beyond, "yeah, I made it up."

I made a distinction. I recognize the use of reference material. That doesn't mean I think anyone being referenced is an ultimate authority and until we can help normies realize there's a big difference and why that difference is important, they'll be locked in to the consensus mindset.