- Relative Privation: "Height discrimination is not that bad because someone else has it worse."
- Just-World: The belief that bad things happen to bad people. "It's not about height, it's your bad personality."
- Survivorship Bias: "Whether it be movie stars, or athletes, or musicians, or CEOs of
multibillion-dollar corporations who dropped out of school, popular
media often tells the story of the determined individual who pursues
their dreams and beats the odds. There is much less focus on the many
people that may be similarly skilled and determined but fail to ever
find success because of factors beyond their control or other
(seemingly) random events. This creates a false public perception that anyone can achieve great
things if they have the ability and make the effort. The overwhelming
majority of failures are not visible to the public eye, and only those
who survive the selective pressures of their competitive environment are
seen regularly."
- Kafkatrapping: People accuse short men of having short man syndrome or being insecure, then when any short man argues against this, it's used as further confirmation for these claims. However, putting up no resistance results in these claims going unchallenged, and therefore accepted as fact.
- Appeal to Nature/Naturalistic/Biological Determinism: "Height prejudice, and the inequity that stems from it, is just the natural way of things." Plenty of things are natural and instinctive, such as the urge to assault somebody in a fit of rage, indulging in unhealthy but satisfying cravings, or taking a male more seriously than a female because the latter is physically weaker on average. Yet all of those things are discouraged, because something being natural doesn't inherently make it excusable. Unless someone has mental illness, a person's words and actions are their own responsibility.
- Burden of Proof: The burden of proof lies with the person who is making a claim. Society claims many nasty things about short men, yet expects short men to "disprove" these stereotypes - the accused is guilty until proven innocent (I've written a series of posts specifically about this).
- Composition/Division: Inferring that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole. "I have never experienced heightism, therefore nobody experiences heightism.
- False Dilemma: When something is falsely claimed to be an "either/or" situation. "You can either think about heightism, or live a fulfilling life."
- Appeal to the People: Believing something is true because many or most people believe it. "If so many talk about angry short men, it must be a real issue." Could also be done in reverse, "Society as a whole doesn't acknowledge heightism, therefore it doesn't exist."
- Argument by Laziness: A person makes a statement or gives an opinion on an issue without having studied the topic being discussed. Everyone seems to be an expert on height related issues, but how many have done their research?
- Strawman: Substituting a person’s actual position or argument, then attacking that new, false narrative. One person could be talking about height discrimination, but the other will act like the first is mad about dating issues.
Showing posts with label "could always be worse". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "could always be worse". Show all posts
Common Fallacies When Discussing Height Prejudice
Never Go Full Retard
Deep down they know the weight/height thing is a double standard, so they decided to go all in with the fallacy of relative privation, even though death wasn't the topic at hand. Allegedly, the red person is a feminist so that makes this extra funny. Many people of this type claim to care about wage gaps and mental health, which height affects, and of course they care about "body shaming," but only in regards to female weight.
Feminists who don't take height prejudice seriously are doing women a disfavor, as it's been shown that a tall woman is treated the same as a tall man at work. It just so happens that women are shorter on average. They need to realize that in an alternate reality where women are taller and stronger on average than men, sexism would be flipped around. The importance of how humans perceive size cannot be stated enough.
P.S. Men statistically die more than women anyway.
Discrimination Is Not Either A Zero Or A Ten
For many people, discrimination does not exist on a scale of 1 to 10. Rather, it's either a 0 or a 10, with no in-between. You're either enslaved, lynched, have laws against you, etc. or it's just not discrimination.
These people are inadvertently admitting they wouldn't do much to stop things like racism, if it weren't for the history behind it. Basically, they would ignore or even partake in racism, if racism had no history of slavery or murder or corrupt laws. They would ignore wage gaps, insulting stereotypes, negative media portrayals, eugenics, and general everyday animosity, because "it could always be worse."
This black and white mentality is called the fallacy of relative privation (read more here).
Funnily enough, whenever these people have an issue, all of a sudden they don't compare themselves to others who have it worse. People get grossed out and complain when their restaurant order has a hair in it, without thinking about all those starving orphans who couldn't care less. People get depressed or angry when they're cheated on or dumped, when there are others who struggle to have a relationship in the first place. Depression and other mental health issues are taken seriously in modern society, when there are people living in war zones right now.
To me, all of this is okay because not everything has to be a serious problem or a non-issue. In fact, forcing men to shut up everywhere except in therapy no doubt contributes to the high rates of suicide in males. Speaking of mental health, I do find it peculiar how society takes this seriously until height is brought into the suicide discussion. Then nothing matters unless you're enslaved or killed first.
These people are inadvertently admitting they wouldn't do much to stop things like racism, if it weren't for the history behind it. Basically, they would ignore or even partake in racism, if racism had no history of slavery or murder or corrupt laws. They would ignore wage gaps, insulting stereotypes, negative media portrayals, eugenics, and general everyday animosity, because "it could always be worse."
This black and white mentality is called the fallacy of relative privation (read more here).
Funnily enough, whenever these people have an issue, all of a sudden they don't compare themselves to others who have it worse. People get grossed out and complain when their restaurant order has a hair in it, without thinking about all those starving orphans who couldn't care less. People get depressed or angry when they're cheated on or dumped, when there are others who struggle to have a relationship in the first place. Depression and other mental health issues are taken seriously in modern society, when there are people living in war zones right now.
To me, all of this is okay because not everything has to be a serious problem or a non-issue. In fact, forcing men to shut up everywhere except in therapy no doubt contributes to the high rates of suicide in males. Speaking of mental health, I do find it peculiar how society takes this seriously until height is brought into the suicide discussion. Then nothing matters unless you're enslaved or killed first.
Fallacy of Relative Privation and Heightism
Copy/pasted from here:
As for my own thoughts on this:
Even in the rare occurrence that someone acknowledges heightism is real (but not that serious), what the fallacy of relative privation causes is a general reaction such as, "sit tight and don't worry, we'll get to you once we're done with the more severe issues."
The secret is that they'll never be done with the other problems, because racism, sexism, etc. can never be fully eradicated. It's like telling people not to steal. Some will always do it anyway.
The other catch is that an issue doesn't have to involve anything like lynching for people to care. For example, weight discrimination is considered a social issue by enough people, to the point where it has a university course.
While wage gaps and mental health are also taken seriously by society, heightism still isn't, despite involving those issues:
If you live in a first-world country you have likely heard somebody say that an issue doesn't matter because it's nothing compared to those "poor kids in Africa".That is called the "fallacy of relative privation."It appears to be used a lot to argue against heightism. Somebody states that they have been discriminated for their height and explains what heightism is, somebody is quick to say "Are you comparing what you deal with for being short to racism? When were short people enslaved?"That is the argument of "your issue doesn't matter because others have it worse" is what university professors call a fallacy and will fail you (or give you a bad mark) for using.Yes, black people were enslaved and gay people have been stoned to death. That is not okay. Saying that there is heightism is not saying that that racism and homophobia don't exist.Just because there are other forms of discrimination does not mean that there isn't heightism.A very simple example: stealing $50 is bad and stealing $1000 is worse. That does not mean that it is fine for someone to steal $50 from you if they also stole $1000 from me.
As for my own thoughts on this:
Even in the rare occurrence that someone acknowledges heightism is real (but not that serious), what the fallacy of relative privation causes is a general reaction such as, "sit tight and don't worry, we'll get to you once we're done with the more severe issues."
The secret is that they'll never be done with the other problems, because racism, sexism, etc. can never be fully eradicated. It's like telling people not to steal. Some will always do it anyway.
The other catch is that an issue doesn't have to involve anything like lynching for people to care. For example, weight discrimination is considered a social issue by enough people, to the point where it has a university course.
While wage gaps and mental health are also taken seriously by society, heightism still isn't, despite involving those issues:
“Being short is probably as much, or more, of a handicap to corporate success as being a woman or an African American.”The fallacy of relative privation is just another shutdown tactic, nothing more.
"A 5-cm increase in height was associated with a 9% decrease in suicide risk."
How to Make an Ironclad Stigma
The following is taken from here: http://www.reddit.com/r/short/comments/2be8mj/13_year_old_commits_suicide_after_years_of_being/cj56244
Ironclad is the perfect word for what it is. We can't improve ourselves or defend ourselves from the stigmas, or that is used as evidence that the stigmas are deserved. We can't get help from the media because they never take the issue seriously, they misrepresent studies in order to reaffirm the stereotypes, and celebrities either go full Garmin, or they remain silent about the issue because speaking against heightism can be a career killer. Basically, the stereotypes spread and reinforce at a rate much faster than the few of us who approach this issue can mount any countereffort.
We got left behind when other forms of discrimination moved forward. So, people equate heightism with "discrimination against big noses" etc, even though we have a body of evidence showing discrimination that links directly to height, but this is the price we pay for getting left behind when other isms were taking off. So, our evidence is cast away as "Everyone goes through something in life" even though the something that we go through has a ton of empirical evidence to prove it, while the other "somethings in life" that are used as counterarguments against us do not.(BTW- not saying that those other somethings aren't worthy of being addressed as well)
Also, being that we got left behind, we're not allowed to use analogies and comparisons to other forms of discrimination, even if we're just comparing the mechanics and not the historical significance. This is always carried-out by a straw man argument that represents us as stating that we're advocating for everyone to stop fighting other forms of discrimination so that they can fight heightism. This misrepresentation just will not die. If people don't enact this misrepresentation, it's the one about how fighting heightism is an indication that we are saying that slavery or The Holocaust was no big deal. People are rightfully fighting other traditionally-addressed isms, but they think that by trivializing anti-heightism efforts, they are somehow honoring the fights against those other isms. They are enacting an irrelevant strategy, but people who hold this misguided opinion are the majority of the populace. Good luck fighting the majority of the populace when you belong to a group that is generally ubiquitously despised, especially when they're idiotically assigning your efforts as an affront to efforts against other forms of discrimination that society is trying to eradicate.
Also, while heightism is not totally gender-specific, men get the brunt of it. Men aren't allowed to have issues or we're "not men." This is especially ironclad for us because we're already "not men" because of our height, so this issue compounds itself exponentially due to this Catch-22.
Then, there's the science(and pseudo-science) arguments where people apply biological arguments to justify heightism. These people all use computers, drive cars, and live in civilization, yet when it comes to heightism..they want it to be "Call of the wild." All of the things I've mentioned thus far help sway them in this direction, but you just can't argue with science...so that puts the nail in the coffin.
Societally, we're also dealing with a continuum of generations who are set in their ways on one side, and who have an indoctrinated sense of self-importance on the younger. On the older end, they see anything that changes as pissing on their nostalgia, and see any effort for social change as evidence that society is becoming "pussified" and going to "hell in a handbasket." On the younger end, we have The Self-Esteem Generation who have been taught that their opinions are golden and they can do anything they want if they smear a unicorn's ear wax on their chest and have "confidence." They are so darling that they can change the world with just their desire. So, everyone falls on this continuum somewhere, but no matter which side they're on, they are set in their ways or maintain a super-inflated idea of their importance to society. Those on the older(or older thinking) parts of the continuum are using flippant dismissals of things like anti-heightism efforts as a way to prove that "The buck stops here." They want to seal all loopholes that could potentially piss on their precious nostalgia to a degree where they may have to change their ways. This stew of self-involvement and inflated ego leads to a narrative where the status quo wins-out, therefore, anti-heightism efforts are not going to flourish in the current social climate.
These are some of the attitudes we're dealing with, and they even transcend heightism. Add the March of The Garmins into the mix, and our efforts get even further diluted because those of us who oppose heightism are believed to be "out of line" because people are used to Garmins staying in their place, and they expect us to be good little boys just like the Garmins.
Furthermore, and possibly most poignantly, society just flat-out doesn't listen to what short people say. Our size makes us child-like, so the best thing to do when we say anything that could upset the herd, is scold us and send us to bed without a juice box. It doesn't matter what we say, know, or think...because we're supposed to speak only when spoken to, and when we are spoken to, we are expected to only reply in a specific manner and tone, and we're supposed to only reply with content that has been predetermined by society, and is associated with our stature.
These are only a few of the reasons why it's such a mess trying to move this issue forward, but it's a mess indeed, and it's not going to be easy to sift through every cliche, stigma, stereotype, straw man argument, false belief, and inflated sense of importance this society offers. We definitely have our work cut out for us.
Ironclad is the perfect word for what it is. We can't improve ourselves or defend ourselves from the stigmas, or that is used as evidence that the stigmas are deserved. We can't get help from the media because they never take the issue seriously, they misrepresent studies in order to reaffirm the stereotypes, and celebrities either go full Garmin, or they remain silent about the issue because speaking against heightism can be a career killer. Basically, the stereotypes spread and reinforce at a rate much faster than the few of us who approach this issue can mount any countereffort.
We got left behind when other forms of discrimination moved forward. So, people equate heightism with "discrimination against big noses" etc, even though we have a body of evidence showing discrimination that links directly to height, but this is the price we pay for getting left behind when other isms were taking off. So, our evidence is cast away as "Everyone goes through something in life" even though the something that we go through has a ton of empirical evidence to prove it, while the other "somethings in life" that are used as counterarguments against us do not.(BTW- not saying that those other somethings aren't worthy of being addressed as well)
Also, being that we got left behind, we're not allowed to use analogies and comparisons to other forms of discrimination, even if we're just comparing the mechanics and not the historical significance. This is always carried-out by a straw man argument that represents us as stating that we're advocating for everyone to stop fighting other forms of discrimination so that they can fight heightism. This misrepresentation just will not die. If people don't enact this misrepresentation, it's the one about how fighting heightism is an indication that we are saying that slavery or The Holocaust was no big deal. People are rightfully fighting other traditionally-addressed isms, but they think that by trivializing anti-heightism efforts, they are somehow honoring the fights against those other isms. They are enacting an irrelevant strategy, but people who hold this misguided opinion are the majority of the populace. Good luck fighting the majority of the populace when you belong to a group that is generally ubiquitously despised, especially when they're idiotically assigning your efforts as an affront to efforts against other forms of discrimination that society is trying to eradicate.
Also, while heightism is not totally gender-specific, men get the brunt of it. Men aren't allowed to have issues or we're "not men." This is especially ironclad for us because we're already "not men" because of our height, so this issue compounds itself exponentially due to this Catch-22.
Then, there's the science(and pseudo-science) arguments where people apply biological arguments to justify heightism. These people all use computers, drive cars, and live in civilization, yet when it comes to heightism..they want it to be "Call of the wild." All of the things I've mentioned thus far help sway them in this direction, but you just can't argue with science...so that puts the nail in the coffin.
Societally, we're also dealing with a continuum of generations who are set in their ways on one side, and who have an indoctrinated sense of self-importance on the younger. On the older end, they see anything that changes as pissing on their nostalgia, and see any effort for social change as evidence that society is becoming "pussified" and going to "hell in a handbasket." On the younger end, we have The Self-Esteem Generation who have been taught that their opinions are golden and they can do anything they want if they smear a unicorn's ear wax on their chest and have "confidence." They are so darling that they can change the world with just their desire. So, everyone falls on this continuum somewhere, but no matter which side they're on, they are set in their ways or maintain a super-inflated idea of their importance to society. Those on the older(or older thinking) parts of the continuum are using flippant dismissals of things like anti-heightism efforts as a way to prove that "The buck stops here." They want to seal all loopholes that could potentially piss on their precious nostalgia to a degree where they may have to change their ways. This stew of self-involvement and inflated ego leads to a narrative where the status quo wins-out, therefore, anti-heightism efforts are not going to flourish in the current social climate.
These are some of the attitudes we're dealing with, and they even transcend heightism. Add the March of The Garmins into the mix, and our efforts get even further diluted because those of us who oppose heightism are believed to be "out of line" because people are used to Garmins staying in their place, and they expect us to be good little boys just like the Garmins.
Furthermore, and possibly most poignantly, society just flat-out doesn't listen to what short people say. Our size makes us child-like, so the best thing to do when we say anything that could upset the herd, is scold us and send us to bed without a juice box. It doesn't matter what we say, know, or think...because we're supposed to speak only when spoken to, and when we are spoken to, we are expected to only reply in a specific manner and tone, and we're supposed to only reply with content that has been predetermined by society, and is associated with our stature.
These are only a few of the reasons why it's such a mess trying to move this issue forward, but it's a mess indeed, and it's not going to be easy to sift through every cliche, stigma, stereotype, straw man argument, false belief, and inflated sense of importance this society offers. We definitely have our work cut out for us.
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