@M.A.R. Ghislaine Maxwell, the enabler and alleged procurer of underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein. Both are seen in the right of the picture labeled "flock together" next to Trump and his wife.
Epstein recently hanged himself in his jail cell in New York rather than face charges for multiple counts of sex crimes against minors.
So in the midst of the pandemic, I see that my investment portfolio has reached a record high. I'm not complaining—that's how retirement savings are supposed to work—but there seems to be something very wrong that people with money are doing just fine while those struggling can't make their rent.
It is the False Dilemma or Bifurcation Fallacy.
If you don't like it, then move.
Let's say you have caused some problems by questioning the decisions, speech, and actions of someone who is actively seeking social, economic, and/or political power. And you're confident that you have every ri...
Well, I am not joking. I'd definitely make fun of something that has the potential or is funny. But you always exaggerating things is not something that I'd joke about
@Gigili The infinity thing is obviously a joke. Jokes exaggerate things to be funny. The 200000 rials thing is not a joke. It may be a false statement, but I doubt that.
"If you don't like it, move" undermines any criticism of the government, the norms of the society, or anything that's beyond the powers of the speaker to fix.
There's a third option: That I don't shut up, and I don't cut ties with all my relatives and friends and go abroad. Maybe things would go for the worse, but if you don't criticize a system, it will definitely not go for the better.
If it's not a rhetorical question, there are so many things a criticism achieves.
You assert your position on a matter, and a chatroom is for asserting things.
You vent, and you feel better.
You make it known to people not in the know what you believe the problems in a system or a book or a movie are, so it's some sort of caveat emptor.
Probably a few more, but I don't feel like listing them unless you start refuting what I'm saying instead of asking rhetorical questions and being snarky.
@Robusto Yeah, I dunno, I find myself agreeing with the second answer more. It's certainly used to refute arguments in the normal sense, like some twisted version of Reductio ad absurdum: That criticism is empty because these are the only viable and practical options. But they're not, hence the bifurcation fallacy
@Gigili I suffer from it, everyone does, and I can complain about it. If you're asserting that it should have some highly moral or ethical recompense afterwards, no, it shouldn't. Not a single chat message here has that.
@Gigili I'm sorry if I offended you, but I fail to see how a word of what I've written has been impolite.
You keep asking rhetorical questions, that you do. And "feel free to look up criticize [...]" is also snarky. That it is.
Whatever, what a waste of time. Gonna get some studying done.
@M.A.R. I seriously doubt it. But if you think Lawler has a fan base here, wait to see what happens if the guy somehow reveals he's the DaVinci Code Dan Brown.
Is "nefast" a typo or poor translation? It's not a word I've ever heard before, and the only definition I can find is "nefarious", which doesn't seem to fit the sentence. — IMSoP5 hours ago
@IMSoP yes, english is not my main language. Néfaste in french means harmful, I edited the question. — Spoutnik165 hours ago
Heh, so remove diacritics and weird-looking e's and French word → English word? Sounds simple enough
Good answer on an earlier discussion about the necessity of using masks:
There was a good article on face masks on SSC way back in March, which reviewed pre-existing evidence on face masks.
I think a large reason the issue became contentious is the way that officials treated face masks as unnecessary in the beginning and then changed their minds later. I'm not sure wh...
Take an expression like déjà vu. This is a French term which is frequently seen in English. In fact, it is included in English dictionaries. But it is often seen in English in a variety of forms:
déjà vu
déjà vu
deja vu
Now, one would probably not consider using frisson or soupçon...
@M.A.R. I think nobody denies that, if everyone should wear face masks 24/7, this would prevent some from sneezing out the virus and infecting others.
As to whether it protects the wearer, I think most experts suspect it may have some effect, but not a large effect.
But the big questions is: under which circumstances is it advisable to make face masks compulsory?
Nobody is looking for a 0 rate of infection.
But everybody wants to make it lower by a certain degree.
If you are on an island with zero international traffic and no known infections, it makes no sense to require face masks anywhere.
If you have a serious outbreak in a certain building where people absolutely need to be but they cannot keep their distance from others, it may very well be a good idea to require face masks, at least of those who aren't immune.
But the situations in between, combined with the uncertainties about the effectiveness of face masks, are difficult.
@Cerberus It has a slight effect for that. Very slight. But people don't understand that the mask is to protect us as a group. Too subtle a point for many, I suppose.
Horrible? The movies weren't terrible as thrillers. I feel like I must have read at least one of the books on some vacation where wifi was not available but even if I remembered I couldn't tell you about the prose because all the spoofing done in that article I couldn't notice unless someone pointed directly at it and said "Here. HERE!".
Like Game of Thrones is probably just as bad. If you like that dragon shit then good for you.
@M.A.R. I vaguely remember being slightly entertained for less than 2 hours, and then immediately forgetting all but that. Maybe they visited a church? In Italy?
A great lampoon on people like Dan Brown, before Brown was even a thing.
> "And above all, never forget that the pen is mightier than the plow-share. By this I mean that writing, all in all, is a hell of a lot more fun than farming. For one thing, writers seldom, if ever, have to get up at five o'clock in the morning and shovel manure. As far as I'm concerned, that gives them the edge right there."
@Robusto That's taking me a while, but so far, it's like the recent video of cats reacting to sniffing durian, I'm having trouble stopping crying from laughing.
> The 190lb adult male human being nodded his head to indicate satisfaction and returned to his bedroom by walking there. Still asleep in the luxurious four-poster bed of the expensive $10 million house was beautiful wife Mrs Brown. Renowned author Dan Brown gazed admiringly at the pulchritudinous brunette’s blonde tresses, flowing from her head like a stream but made from hair instead of water and without any fish in.
@M.A.R. You can cut out about 90% of your reading time by reading only the good ones.
For me, good writing is about voice. Before buying a book I read two or three pages and ask myself, "Can I listen to this voice for another 400 pages?"
@Robusto Well I'm that stage of life when slowly slowly, if the digital life ever allows, you can raise your head from textbooks and explore what else can be written on paper. So I've definitely not wasted much time reading bad books, because I've not spent enough time reading books that don't have to do with parasympathetic nerves or reactions of alkenes.
I don't read that kind of trash. I only read good trash.
@M.A.R. When my kids were into Harry Potter I tried—I really, really tried—to read Rowling. But I failed. Utterly and completely. I couldn't manage more than the first 50 pages of the first book.
And to me, that your average skinny teen has inseparable friends and goes on to do important stuff because he's been stamped as important since birth (I think) seems like shameless pandering
It even goes further than that. The bully was a bad guy in the end, who knew. The bad-tempered teacher turned out not deserving of your sympathy and a bad guy or maybe not a bad guy, who knew.
The world obviously revolves around this little pup and that I hate.
It is the False Dilemma or Bifurcation Fallacy.
If you don't like it, then move.
Let's say you have caused some problems by questioning the decisions, speech, and actions of someone who is actively seeking social, economic, and/or political power. And you're confident that you have every ri...
Take an expression like déjà vu. This is a French term which is frequently seen in English. In fact, it is included in English dictionaries. But it is often seen in English in a variety of forms:
déjà vu
déjà vu
deja vu
Now, one would probably not consider using frisson or soupçon...
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…