this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025
81 points (96.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

33046 readers
1660 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] remon@ani.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

At least 400 kilobyte.

[–] hogmomma@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If we're talking about things that are easily quantifiable, not very much at all.

[–] untakenusername@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

yeah that makes sense, like a math proof

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

What would you classify as easily quantifiable?

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Things that don't very much over time, like your height.

[–] hogmomma@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

I don't know, like measurements of something. Quantities of something. Distance, speed, volume.

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

At least 4.

I'll colloquially use the word "fact" for extremely well supported claims, but in my head the only actual "facts" are mathematical derivations. Evidence supports the veracity of a claim, and a claim with a lot of evidence gets a tentative place in my world model, but any of those claims can be refuted by sufficient counter-evidence

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Depends how interesting or important or complex the thing is. If you tell me that your foot is 25cm long, I'll believe you without question. If you tell me it's 52cm, then you're going to have a hard time convincing me (unless you've already convinced me that you're a talking kangaroo).

This is why it's much more important to be skeptical of people's views on political issues too, because the situations are always complex, and important to different people in different ways.

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Like with questions posted in a forum: at least, having little more to read than just its title ;)

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What elaboration do you require from the title to allow you to answer the question fully?

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I would say, a good starting point would be a few examples of those so-called facts and their corresponding data.

Half-jokingly, I have little doubt I could find a lot of data demonstrating the earth is flat on flat-earth.org or whatever flat-earthers main website is called. But no matter the amount of data I would find there that still would not cut it as far as I'm concerned to accept their certainty as a fact—Incidentally, I also just answered your first question: it's not just the quantity of data, it's also its trustworthiness that should matter ;)

[–] Arkouda@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I keep hearing "it isn't the quantity..." and I do not understand why it isn't seen as just as important as trustworthiness of source because even the best source needs a high amount of data to back up a claim.

On the topic of flat earthers, did you ever see the video of the guy who tried to demonstrate the earth was flat and proved it was round? The look on his face was priceless. haha

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I keep hearing “it isn’t the quantity…” and I do not understand why it isn’t seen as just as important as trustworthiness of source because even the best source needs a high amount of data to back up a claim.

consider my flat-earthers example: the trustworthiness of the source(s) is at least as important. If I told you my pseudo is 'Libb' you can bet that it is indeed so, even if that just me saying it. And that would remain true if, out of nowhere, 100s of people started telling you my pseudo was in reality 'Mickey' or 'Gertrude'. I would still be Libb. Conclusion? All by myself, against that hypotheticla large crowd, I'm still a more reliable source of info concerning my identity.

On the topic of flat earthers, did you ever see the video of the guy who tried to demonstrate the earth was flat and proved it was round? The look on his face was priceless. haha

No, and I'm almost wishing to see it. Almost.

I must admit the rise of flat earth theory came as a shock to me. I always have had a sweet spot for absurd theories but I could not imagine people taking those seriously. But maybe that's just me being manipulated/lobotomized by the government? As a matter of fact, I'm also a pro-vax and that may explain a lot :p

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] the_grass_trainer@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Depending on the fact I should be able to find sources for it on .ORG and .GOV sites.

If i just find random blog posts, or facebook groups in the search results I take it with a grain of salt.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

I read proper peer reviewed research. I'm usually not a specialist on the subject, so I am unable to properly process any data available.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago

Logical proof, is it reasonable and do peers agree. That could be a tiny amount of data or a large amount of data. It is specific to the "something".

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Just Facebook! LOL

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

No real answer but in a general sense I try to know that most things are a matter of perspective and truth is on a probability curve

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›