It's been a long time since I've taken a Logic course, but there has to be a term for fallacious arguments that are made in the form of "you're whining about whining, therefore you're a whiner!"
I see them all the time on here.
Making a casual observation about noticeable (and unfortunate) trends in the behavior of young adults does not put said observer in the same category as these people by default. Where along the way in the development of the internet did so many people start to equate "opining" with "whining" in such a knee-jerk manner?
There is no fallacy in "you're whining about whining, therefore you're a whiner!" - a whiner is one that whines, and this OP is indeed whining, thus he/she is a whiner. For the sake of not arguing over the definition of a word, my intended defining of whining in this case was the OP taking a stance against an entire age group of people in a childish, immature way by coming to said group and saying "This is a list of ideals that only
you people aren't conforming to.."
Thanks for bringing up logical fallacies, by the way. You and the OP have both used at least one in this thread.
Do you not see the fallacy in: "I see some people on this forum looking for support from other members about some hardship in school. I don't know how old they are, I'm just going to guess they're between the ages of 18-21. These people are irresponsible, non-scholarly, lazy people who can't handle disappointment."
?
Not only did he/she form a faulty conclusion based on misinterpretation of things he/she speculated, but he/she then implied that faulty conclusion over the ENTIRE group of people ages 18-21.
Yeah.. so, keep lecturing ME on logic.
People often face hard times in school. Whether they're due to laziness, or situations beyond their control. When one is in a hard time, we look for the support and reinforcement of our peers to build our encouragement back up. There's nothing wrong with that.. it's a healthy form of socialization and cooperation, rather than a weakness. Look at rehabs, support groups, or 12 step programs. Those are full of (usually) adults, many of them ABOVE ages 18-21, looking for the support and connection of their peers to justify themselves and to get their life back into shape.
There are things that can't be learned from books. Bringing those things into open discussion on a forum such as this, instead of reading the definition of an author (who is also human, and biased), is not "irresponsible" but rather a more holistic view at a topic.
Good luck to either of you if you think that the only way to learn the "simplest information" is to bury onesself in a book.
