Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> let's buy a car and fuck the planet

There’s currently football matches being played in Qatar in stadiums with AC set to 20°C in 32°C weather. Thousands of people have travelled there by plane.

Me having a car is fine.




https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority

Using fallacies to invalidate arguments should be a fallacy by itself. Maybe my argument is a fallacy logically speaking, but in the real world, not everything is ruled by formal logic. If A is completely negligible compared to B, the « A not as bad as B » fallacy doesn’t apply anymore.


Of course it still does.

To me, your argument sounds pretty much the same as "The us dropped a nuke on Hiroshima. Me throwing a molotov at my neighbor is fine."

Sure that molotov is negligible in front of B. Doesn't make it okay


A more proper equivalent would be me throwing a molotov on hiroshima the day after the nuke impact. Same victim.

The atmosphere is global, there's no Qatar's atmosphere and my neighbor's atmosphere


The two aren't mutually exclusive


Yeah they kinda are. Scales matter. I know the « A not as bad as B » fallacy and in my opinion it falls short when A is completely negligible compared to B, because it’s not a fallacy anymore, it’s just reality.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: