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  • Re: Buzzword of the week: Weaponise/Weaponize

    From Adam Funk@a24061@ducksburg.com to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 15 16:09:27 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On 2026-05-08, J. J. Lodder wrote:

    Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> wrote:

    Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org> wrote:

    On 07/05/26 16:38, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
    Ar an seacht|a-| l|a-i de m|arCo Bealtaine, scr|arCoobh Steve Hayes:

    An example of prejudice would be that if the first case of
    backache you encountered was a spinal epidural abscess, you treated
    every subsequent case as a spinal epidural abscess.

    Yes; and even that is usually actually helpful, because I *will*
    adjust my pre-test-probability in the right direction with time,
    whereas a spinal epidural abscess is generally not on the radar at
    all for most doctors, and missing them is a routine medicolegal
    catastrophe. It|orCo-Os unusual to investigate for something you never >> > > thought of.

    If you update your probability estimate on the basis of experience,
    that's no long prejudice. A standard feature of prejudice is
    unwillingness to look at the evidence.

    Unwillingness to look at ALL the evidence.

    It is just a prejudice to believe that looking at all the evidence
    will cure people of prejudices,

    I can't find it now, but I saw something online recently like this:

    I was explaining to a friend how just giving people all the facts
    won't make them change their minds. He said he didn't believe that.

    So I sent him five psychology research papers about it. He said he
    still didn't believe it.
    --
    Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.
    --Buckminster Fuller
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  • From Rich Ulrich@rich.ulrich@comcast.net to alt.usage.english on Mon Jun 15 22:04:38 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english

    On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:09:27 +0100, Adam Funk <a24061@ducksburg.com>
    wrote:



    I can't find it now, but I saw something online recently like this:

    I was explaining to a friend how just giving people all the facts
    won't make them change their minds. He said he didn't believe that.

    So I sent him five psychology research papers about it. He said he
    still didn't believe it.


    I liked that enough that I made it into a small poster, yellow
    background with large letters, and posted it to FaceBook.

    Apparently it satisfied some FB algorithm for sharing widely --
    in 21 minutes, it got 28 Likes and 3 Shares. That is probably
    more than ALL the people who usually see my posts.

    I almost never have had more than 3 Likes for anything.
    --
    Rich Ulrich
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