User talk:Viriditas: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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:::I'm terms of the intolerance I'm speaking of, Rusf10 attacked JzG, MastCell, and myself for disagreeing with him, and made the outrageous claim that it was totally unacceptable for anyone to call the Republican Party a cult. I hope that clears up your evident confusion. Btw, it's considered extremely poor form to demand apologies from anyone. From where I stand, Rusf10 is intolerant of those who disagree with him, and I'm free to oppose that. Have a good evening. [[User:Viriditas|Viriditas]] ([[User talk:Viriditas#top|talk]]) 02:53, 22 May 2021 (UTC)

::::I suggested apologizing because it would perhaps mitigate any possible consequences from this personal attack. However, you're of course free not to apologize if you do not feel so inclined.

::::As for the reasoning you're quoting here, I'd thought it should be obvious to an experienced editor that when a source supports a statement that Trump and the Republican Party exhibit a number of traits, and when other sources confirm that these same traits are common characteristics of cults, it is an unacceptable [[WP:SYNTH|synthesis]] to infer from this that 'the Republican Party is a cult'? Surely, if the reasoning were so sound, we would have numerous reliable sources just directly stating that the Republican Party is a cult?

::::But even quite apart from policy, the reasoning is in fact unsound. It is a formal fallacy known as the [[fallacy of the undistributed middle]]. To see this, we can put the reasoning in syllogistic form:

:::::1. All cults are entities exhibiting traits A, B, C

:::::2. The GOP is an entity exhibiting traits A, B, C

:::::3. Therefore, the GOP is a cult

::::Now, replace 'cults', 'GOP', and traits A, B, C as follows:

:::::1. All fish can swim, need oxygen to survive, and sexually reproduce

:::::2. My best friend can swim, needs oxygen to survive, and sexually reproduces

:::::3. Therefore, my best friend is a fish

::::Note that my best friend and fish actually are related in so far as that they're both animals, and sharing a number of traits may indeed indicate some kind of relationship. I'm pretty sure that there are reliable sources out there which accurately observe that the Trumpist faction in the GOP exhibits a significant number of cult-like elements. Of course there is also an actual cult that is in fact Trumpist. But there's no logically valid way from there to 'the Republican Party is a cult'. For this reason too, you will find no reliable source directly supporting that claim. Finally, it is manifestly unfair to represent this as an evidence-based fact, when in reality it is an irrational hyperbole, quite typical of the current US political climate. [[User:Apaugasma|Apaugasma]] ([[User talk:Apaugasma|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Apaugasma|contribs]]) 04:08, 22 May 2021 (UTC)