> One person with a crazy idea is just a wingnut. Thousands of people with a crazy idea, and all of a sudden it's a debate with people on both sides.
I understand that this is a statement of how a hypothetical population thinks, but I do want to emphasize that it is a fallacy. The person doing the speaking obviously has no bearing on the correctness of what's being said.
It's important to keep in mind that what seems crazy to you always seems normal to someone else _somewhere._ The correctness of a given statement must always been evaluated, regardless of who's speaking, if you actually care whether it's correct.
Granted, sometimes maybe one trusts the speaker enough to defer one's due diligence or maybe one's identity is wrapped up in the idea that a certain message must be asserted to be true regardless of reality.
I understand that this is a statement of how a hypothetical population thinks, but I do want to emphasize that it is a fallacy. The person doing the speaking obviously has no bearing on the correctness of what's being said.
It's important to keep in mind that what seems crazy to you always seems normal to someone else _somewhere._ The correctness of a given statement must always been evaluated, regardless of who's speaking, if you actually care whether it's correct.
Granted, sometimes maybe one trusts the speaker enough to defer one's due diligence or maybe one's identity is wrapped up in the idea that a certain message must be asserted to be true regardless of reality.