• fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      Is that sentence structure ambiguous?

      If you said “Iron Age men fought with Iron Swords” you wouldn’t say that statement is clearly false because it’s not true of all iron age men.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 days ago

          You seem to have missed my point.

          In common parlance you don’t need to qualify generalisations when it’s obvious to the audience that they are generalisations.

          Consider a statement like “Australians like to eat Vegemite on toast for breakfast”.

          It’s an absurdity to refute that statement on the basis that it’s an unqualified generalisation. It’s very obvious to everyone that not every Australian enjoys Vegemite, and that some Australian’s probably enjoy Vegemite at other times of the day. The whole point of the sentence is to convey that Australians are more likely to enjoy Vegemite than people of other nations.

          If you’d like to spend your life refuting every general assertion on the basis that it’s not qualified by saying “some” Australians enjoy Vegemite then I guess you’re welcome to do so, but it seems like a very odd proclivity to me.

              • SplashJackson@lemmy.ca
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                2 days ago

                Weren’t you trolling on another part of the thread? I already forgave you, but you’re back at it with more conversational terrorism. What’s with the dark patterns, friend? You some sort of bad actor type?

                As for your question, I am neither. I am a genetically modified oak leaf that has gained sentience (unrelated to the genetic modification - that only made me glow in the dark) and manipulated a pack of squirrels to steal a cell phone from a hiker, typing for me in exchange for acorns and the occassional drip of morning dew.

                • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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                  2 days ago

                  No i wasn’t. You’re the child trolling in this post as a response to everyone rightfully telling you you’re wrong.

                  I never asked for your forgiveness. I couldn’t care less what you think of me.

                  • SplashJackson@lemmy.ca
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                    1 day ago

                    That is very rude of you, I’ve already told you I am a sentient oak leaf and yet you continuously refer to me as a child. Why the bigotry? Please desist the harassment, friend.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Because people can figure that out by a combination of using a bit of common sense and reading the article in any doubt. And I say “people” even though there’s at least one person who can’t, and people will understand anyway.

      • SplashJackson@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        It’s not well and good to assume that common sense is a real thing, seeing the amount of maroons congregating since the proliferation of the Internet. People are easily led, misled, outraged or cowed. Case in point, Flat Earthers