Um, you just refuted a crackpot claim on the object level, using the kind of common-sense argument that I (a layman) heard from a physics teacher in high school. ETA: This may illustrate a problem with the neat, bright-line categories you’re assuming.
On a similar note: I remember a speech given by a young-Earth creationist that I think differs from lesser crankdom mainly in being more developed. As the lie aged it needed to birth more lies in response to the real world of entangled truths. And while I couldn’t refute everything the guy said—that’s the point of a Gish Gallop—I knew a cat probably couldn’t be a vegetarian.
No, I contradicted a crackpot claim by stating that the opposite was true. I didn’t refute it; that would have required providing evidence (in this case, by explaining how someone without budget constraints actually could go about making a replica of the Great Pyramid using modern technology).
Not sure what you just said, but according to the aforementioned physics teacher people have absolutely brought beer money, recruited a bunch of guys, and had them move giant rocks around in a manner consistent with the non-crazy theory of pyramid construction. (I guess the brand of beer used might count as “modern technology,” and perhaps the quarry tools, but I doubt the rest of it did.) You don’t, in fact, need to build a full pyramid to refute crackpot claims.
Um, you just refuted a crackpot claim on the object level, using the kind of common-sense argument that I (a layman) heard from a physics teacher in high school. ETA: This may illustrate a problem with the neat, bright-line categories you’re assuming.
On a similar note: I remember a speech given by a young-Earth creationist that I think differs from lesser crankdom mainly in being more developed. As the lie aged it needed to birth more lies in response to the real world of entangled truths. And while I couldn’t refute everything the guy said—that’s the point of a Gish Gallop—I knew a cat probably couldn’t be a vegetarian.
No, I contradicted a crackpot claim by stating that the opposite was true. I didn’t refute it; that would have required providing evidence (in this case, by explaining how someone without budget constraints actually could go about making a replica of the Great Pyramid using modern technology).
Not sure what you just said, but according to the aforementioned physics teacher people have absolutely brought beer money, recruited a bunch of guys, and had them move giant rocks around in a manner consistent with the non-crazy theory of pyramid construction. (I guess the brand of beer used might count as “modern technology,” and perhaps the quarry tools, but I doubt the rest of it did.) You don’t, in fact, need to build a full pyramid to refute crackpot claims.
He was giving an example of something someone may not be able to refute (and showing that it could at some level easily be known to be wrong).
Re “Um,”: that is a contempt display in my experience. Not useful.