Protests

Question

Electrical	Protests Would it be a hasty generalization to call the protests in 2020 riots when they did happen? Especially when statistics came out that the majority of protests were peaceful?
	asked on Sunday, Feb 21, 2021 11:54:55 PM by Electrical
Top Categories Suggested by Community
Comments

Want to get notified of all questions as they are asked? Update your mail preferences and turn on "Instant Notification."

Uncomfortable Ideas: Facts don't care about feelings. Science isn't concerned about sensibilities. And reality couldn't care less about rage.

This is a book about uncomfortable ideas—the reasons we avoid them, the reasons we shouldn’t, and discussion of dozens of examples that might infuriate you, offend you, or at least make you uncomfortable.

Many of our ideas about the world are based more on feelings than facts, sensibilities than science, and rage than reality. We gravitate toward ideas that make us feel comfortable in areas such as religion, politics, philosophy, social justice, love and sex, humanity, and morality. We avoid ideas that make us feel uncomfortable. This avoidance is a largely unconscious process that affects our judgment and gets in the way of our ability to reach rational and reasonable conclusions. By understanding how our mind works in this area, we can start embracing uncomfortable ideas and be better informed, be more understanding of others, and make better decisions in all areas of life.

Get 20% off this book and all Bo's books*. Use the promotion code: websiteusers

* This is for the author's bookstore only. Applies to autographed hardcover, audiobook, and ebook.

Get the Book

Answers

Bo Bennett, PhD

No. The problem isn't drawing the conclusion; it's defining "riot." Riots can break out of protests, which they did, but that doesn't make the entire event itself a "riot." This is an area ripe with political bias and spin. One can legitimately refer to the event is 2020 as "riots" as well as "protests." We just need to keep in mind that they are referring to different events. The riots were subsets of the protests.

Implying that the protests, as a whole, were "riots," might be best characterized by the ambiguity fallacy

answered on Monday, Feb 22, 2021 06:48:53 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD

Bo Bennett, PhD Suggested These Categories

Comments

0	Electrical writes: Well when some people and media like fox news say "riots", it seems like they are implying the whole protest was a riot. Also, a lot of people when they heard the 2020 protest refered to as riots they automatically assume they're talk about the whole and not the part.
	posted on Monday, Feb 22, 2021 02:29:49 PM

	0	Bo Bennett, PhD writes: [To Ms. Elyce] These people are either misleading others or being mislead. For the vast majority of us who weren't there, we can only learn from others. The media can choose to show us peaceful protests are violent riots. The riots are more newsworthy.
		[ login to reply ] posted on Monday, Feb 22, 2021 02:50:29 PM

Rationalissimo

What Dr Bo said is accurate.

An example of "hasty generalisation" would be "I saw two riots, therefore, all the protests were riots."

answered on Monday, Feb 22, 2021 08:14:47 AM by Rationalissimo

Rationalissimo Suggested These Categories

Comments

0	Prof M writes: If stated on conservative media, perhaps confirmation bias? Shoehorning?
	posted on Monday, Feb 22, 2021 12:18:01 PM

	0	Rationalissimo writes: [To Prof M] It depends on the wider context (what the exact claim is).
		[ login to reply ] posted on Monday, Feb 22, 2021 01:19:03 PM