• Aqarius@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    The M&M argument, THE M&M argument, that the article describes, and that …let’s say Pyre, made, and admitted to making, is, in fact, a justification of prejudice. It’s the argument of exclusion of an entire demographic based on “well, some of them are bad, and I’m not taking the chance.” And if we’re gonna shove buzzwords down each other’s throat, I’m not strawmanning you, you’re gaslighting me. Well, trying to, anyway.

    If you wanna make a separate, different M&M argument, one that isn’t the one above, go ahead - I am curious about how you’re gonna talk your way into un-poisoning the M&Ms. But that new, different argument that you have not yet made is not what this conversation is about.

    • SquirtleHermit@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      That’s the fun part of my argument, I don’t need to talk about M&M’s. But I can see why you would prefer I do so you don’t have to engage with the actual content of the argument.

      Also, more strawmanning from you is no surprise, Pyre didn’t make the argument that a group should be excluded did tthey? They made the argument that women often don’t want to take chances with their safety by being alone with men. Even if the M&M argument was used to justify collective punishment (with or without a “poisoned M&M” actually existing), it’s very clear Pyre used the metaphor to explain why being alone with an unknown man would be a situation a woman would want to avoid. Your attempts to change their arguments to one of bigotry is disingenuous.

      • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        On the contrary - yes you do. My complaint is using poison M&Ms as a metaphor for human beings. If you’re not gonna present a poison M&M argument of your own, then there’s only The Argument left. Though at least we now agree that it is used to justify collective punishment.

        Actually, you know what, since you can’t seem to find the exit, I’ll point you to it. Say:

        “The M&M argument is a faulty and dehumanising generalisation, but it’s understandable that someone would feel unsafe after living a lifetime worrying about men hurting you.”

        And I’ll say:

        "The sentiment is not unreasonable. But generalizations are both suspect and arbitrary (see Sartre’s “Jewish furrier” story), and the wariness itself is alienating for both sides, and an obstacle to fixing things. It’s not strange that a lifetime under threat leads to trauma, but allowing trauma to fester and calcify is the wrong choice.