1901: Logical

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Logical

Title text: It's like I've always said--people just need more common sense. But not the kind of common sense that lets them figure out that they're being condescended to by someone who thinks they're stupid, because then I'll be in trouble.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Needs more. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

White Hat says that problems in society could be avoided if people relied on logic and science rather than feelings -- but when Cueball presses him to back up his claim, White Hat insists that what his claim must be true, because it feels true, and the opposition (which he dismissively refers to as "these idiots") believes in things that he doesn't believe. Because the comic is only one panel long, we have no way of determining whether White Hat's statement is self-evident, or if the opposition is as uneducated as he claims them to be; without surrounding context to distract us, we see that White Hat's argument is both fallacious and hypocritical.

The title text is White Hat's opinion, where he says that people need more common sense, but not enough to have them know when he is talking down to them.

Transcript

[White Hat is spreading his arms and facing Cueball.]

White Hat: We wouldn't have all these problems if people just learned to be more logical and science-driven instead of relying on feelings.

Cueball: Oh? What study are you basing that on?

White Hat: It just seems obvious!

White Hat: I mean, look at the crap these idiots believe!

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Discussion

Potentially relevant: [1] Potentially relevant: [2] Potentially relevant: [3] Joshupetersen (talk) 16:00, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

-- Link 1 points to a 1952 paper which demonstrates that "scientists" live longer with the top 6 occupations being Educators, Lawyers, Engineers, Naturalists, Historians and Inventors ... seems a pretty loose definition of scientist to me. --Rtanenbaum (talk) 17:39, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Added the title text to the explanation and transcript. --JayRulesXKCD ^{what's up?} 16:06, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

For the record I believe the advantages of using statistics over intuition were thoroughly discussed in the Michael Lewis book Moneyball, also 538 has done studies comparing statistical approaches to election prediction to political punditry and finally the good old Monty Hall Problem.Sturmovik (talk) 16:22, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

"... inconclusive scientific evidence against White Hat's position"? Is "inconclusive" the best you can do? Or did you mean "only inconclusive"? Randall is basically attempting to use an argument from silence against anyone asserting White Hat's basic position (for which there is some very good evidence). It's ironic that to argue against the position requires using the law of non-contradiction; hence is self refuting. 198.41.238.52 22:41, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

The joke isn't that rational decision-making is bad, it's that many of those who aggressively espouse the importance of rational decision-making and deride the influence of emotions are rarely as rational and logical in their decision-making as they like to think they are.

If nothing else, a truly rational thinker would realize that for better or worse people ARE affected by emotional cues and that as such subtly insulting those you're speaking to is not a good way to influence opinions and change decisions.

And a truly self-aware rational thinker would realize that the vehemence of his later complaints about how people are illogical and emotional might have less to do with the objective importance of rationality and more to do with his own feelings being hurt because his opinions were ignored or derided.

But surely that doesn't apply to anybody here and any sensation of defensiveness that might occur comes from a place of pure logic and reason, right?162.158.178.165 15:42, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

This comic is probably a response to the Nobel prize in economics awarded to Richard Thaler for finding ways to nudge people to decisions that the nudger believes to be more common sense.--162.158.88.188 09:23, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

The problem with generalizations is that all of them are idiotic.--162.158.111.151 12:14, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

... including the one you just used :-). -- Hkmaly (talk) 00:49, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

*Whoosh!*141.101.98.172 11:55, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

*Whoosh!* 172.68.34.190 03:00, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

f Nafedalbi (talk) 12:43, 6 May 2022 (UTC)Nafedalbi