Poll of the Day > Is accusing people of being poor a weak argument tactic?

(+) Yeah! (+)

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Maybe before the internet allowed the poor access to knowledge once held by only the rich.

Misread topic title, yes its a weak argument in modern times.
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Yes it's weak, it's appeal to popularity!
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Lokarin posted...

Yes it's weak, it's appeal to popularity!

I think its more poisoning the well.

Implying any idea from a poor person is wrong because if they had good ideas they wouldnt be poor

Its also classism.
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Depends. ARE they poor? And does their being poor pertain to the discussion at hand?

As an extreme example, I wouldn't value the opinions of someone who was poor in a discussion of the relative merits and drawbacks of owning a yacht.


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Depends. ARE they poor? And does their being poor pertain to the discussion at hand?

It does when they only have one game console and bitterly whinge about the competition...
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It's a pretty good argument ifarguing about why Haitians can't just buy boats and move to another country
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Depends. ARE they poor? And does their being poor pertain to the discussion at hand?

As an extreme example, I wouldn't value the opinions of someone who was poor in a discussion of the relative merits and drawbacks of owning a yacht.

Well maybe the poor person world with yachts or owns a boat and has some knowledge in that field.
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Shut up Kenny!

yutterh posted...

Well maybe the poor person world with yachts or owns a boat and has some knowledge in that field.

But they would still lack tangible experience in OWNING a yacht (unless they only became poor recently, possibly due to buying too many yachts), and their perspective on the relative merits of owning one would be colored by their own poverty (ie, who can justify buying a yacht when you can barely afford to pay your rent each month?).

And if I was sitting on millions in disposable income, my personal situation would be so radically different from theirs, almost every possible discussion involving finances would be coming from such different places, we'd essentially be speaking entirely different languages and living in two entirely different worlds.

On the other hand, there are plenty of issues where economics don't necessarily play a role, and thus, where "lol you're poor" wouldn't be an effective counter-argument.


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