"There is nothing you can do about that..."
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Original Question
Is this a loose rendition of the 'sunk cost' fallacy? Or simply a pessimistic or cynical outlook? Perhaps both?
I hear this a lot when discussing political issues. Most recently a 90 y/o friend of mine made this remark when I was discussing the Democrat's sudden reversal surrounding calling witnesses at the Senate impeachment trial. Although it is undeniably true that I can not affect the outcome, I am left wondering about the statement in general, and if it might conceal a fallacy?
Answers
2If taken strictly as a claim, it would be factual or not, so no fallacy. If used in the context of an argument, you can go for amazing familiarity . It seems like for this to be factual in virtually all cases*, one would have to have god-like knowledge. Take an outrageous example of the sun exploding in 10 billion+- years. Is there "nothing" we can do about it? Perhaps if we put more effort into space exploration we can learn more about the sun, that will lead to cascading technological advances that ultimately leads to us solving the sun problem in 1000 years.
* I can think of one case. If a person is made unconscious, then someone says "There is nothing you can do about..." to the unconscious person, then they kill that person.
I would not look at this as a logical fallacy, but as a piece of advice/request to stop some discussion. This request is based on the attitude that we should not waste time, worry, think, discuss about things that we cannot change.
This request does not concern the very essence of a specific argument.
If we ignore the imperative component, then it is a simple statement that has nothing to do with the argument.
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