Comments on: Are Spanish banks in trouble? http://www.thebadrash.com/2009/10/11/are-spanish-banks-in-trouble/ A blog from Barcelona, Catalonia, covering politics, culture, society and more Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:18:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Alun Hewinsonhttp://www.thebadrash.com/2009/10/11/are-spanish-banks-in-trouble/#comment-71254 Alun Hewinson Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:41:00 +0000 http://www.thebadrash.com/?p=1449#comment-71254 It's actually quite difficult to ignore the 'racial pressure' element in that post; it is interlaced throughout the opening apocalypse-ramping argument. And what a classic case of ramping it is. Introduce two end-member possibilities (a and c), focus on one (c) and then shift your scope to make it appear the middle ground. Follow up with a hitherto unannounced extreme (d) which now appears more reasonable as being only one step away from the object of your focus (c). Then limply suggest that the original middle option is your position, leaving the strong hint that you are perhaps committing the error of wishful thinking. I'm not saying the blogger is being consciously deceptive, but this is a classic case of ramping. It also doesn't make him wrong; whilst I am aware of the problems of the structure of this argument I have no position on its substance. An (unintentionally) bad argument can sometimes contain not a word of a lie. It's just that they are often the product of an attempt to make a mountain out of a molehill, or to smuggle in a very unlikely scenario into a realm of reasonableness to which it may not belong. It's actually quite difficult to ignore the 'racial pressure' element in that post; it is interlaced throughout the opening apocalypse-ramping argument. And what a classic case of ramping it is. Introduce two end-member possibilities (a and c), focus on one (c) and then shift your scope to make it appear the middle ground. Follow up with a hitherto unannounced extreme (d) which now appears more reasonable as being only one step away from the object of your focus (c). Then limply suggest that the original middle option is your position, leaving the strong hint that you are perhaps committing the error of wishful thinking.

I'm not saying the blogger is being consciously deceptive, but this is a classic case of ramping. It also doesn't make him wrong; whilst I am aware of the problems of the structure of this argument I have no position on its substance. An (unintentionally) bad argument can sometimes contain not a word of a lie. It's just that they are often the product of an attempt to make a mountain out of a molehill, or to smuggle in a very unlikely scenario into a realm of reasonableness to which it may not belong.

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]]> By: Charles Butlerhttp://www.thebadrash.com/2009/10/11/are-spanish-banks-in-trouble/#comment-71215 Charles Butler Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:18:25 +0000 http://www.thebadrash.com/?p=1449#comment-71215 I dunno, Tom. The writer of that piece presented four options ranging from hunky-dory to apocalypse, then clearly chose number two - they're fudging their numbers a bit, but there's no indication they're insolvent. Read it again. I dunno, Tom. The writer of that piece presented four options ranging from hunky-dory to apocalypse, then clearly chose number two – they're fudging their numbers a bit, but there's no indication they're insolvent.

Read it again.

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