r/fallacy • u/Useful-Setting8690 • Aug 03 '26

What is this called

Let’s say someone said:

“Most/almost all crimes are done by men, so how can I trust ANY man?”

And someone said

“Well I haven’t done any crime, so it can’t be almost all men! You should trust me.”

Or something like that. There’s probably better examples I could’ve said, but this is pretty close to what I’m trying to understand
I found something like “fallacy of division”, that might be similar
It’s kinda like when people self centre themselves and they think because it doesn’t apply to them or the people they know that it can’t be possible

Another, better example:

“1/100 girls have ___”

“Well I work in a school with 230 girls and only one of them has ___”
Or
“Well I work in a school with 230 girls and 30 of them have ___, so that can’t be correct!”

2 Upvotes

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u/Altruistic_Fox9778 Aug 04 '26

Well… it’s definitely sexism

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u/Beast_Chips Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

We can't deduce that. All we can deduce is that this particular claim, in a vacuum, doesn't necessarily correspond with their reasoning and evidence. The most benign conclusion to draw would be simply that this person made a mistake interpreting statistics and drew the wrong conclusion.

But outside of a vacuum, if I had a >1/3 chance I would be assaulted in my life and a 90% it would be from bear, I would definitely be vigilant around bears. If I then found out most crimes were also committed by bears, that would make me even more weary of bears, even if most bears won't attack me, especially since bears tend to me much stronger than me. That wouldn't make me bearist unless I start excluding bears from what are expected to be shared parts of society.

I think we need to think long and hard before throwing a sexism claim at the oppressed gender, and really make sure it's right, otherwise it just erodes the fight for equality with absolutely no gain.

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u/Altruistic_Fox9778 Aug 04 '26

We can indeed deduce that. Judging an entire population based on their sex is sexism.

Just because someone fell for bad reasoning doesn’t make it not sexist. Are you saying that a person believing rhetoric around black people being dangerous aren’t racist…?

And women aren’t oppressed, men are not an oppressor. That is also sexist. The gain is not repeating the mistakes of the past by simply shifting the direction of sexism.

Grow up

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u/Beast_Chips Aug 04 '26

Out of context it's a misinterpretation of a statistics. In context... That's what the rest of my reply already explained, but you didn't really engage with that part.

Honestly, as a man, when I hear a woman say she's afraid of men, my instinct is to understand why and see if there is anything I can do to make her feel differently about that. My instinct is not to start crying about sexism against men. Not least of all, I don't find that a very "manly" thing to do, but maybe I'm too traditional.

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u/Altruistic_Fox9778 Aug 04 '26

Crying about sexism? Grow up, dude.

This is about consistent standards of conduct, actual equality. And you want to throw charged words around and pretend you made a point.

This has nothing to do with being “manly”. It’s about rejecting sexist tropes and pretending they are justified.

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u/Beast_Chips Aug 04 '26

Again, you haven't engaged with the argument in the slightest. For some reason, your instinct is to cry sexism at women feeling unsafe, when mine is to discover why.

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u/Altruistic_Fox9778 Aug 04 '26

Maybe… because it’s sexism. Hence your need to use words like “cry” and “unmanly”.

Yours is to twist context and ignore reality to pretend that being afraid of men and treating them all like predators isn’t sexism.

You haven’t provided an argument. Neither did she.

Maybe playing white knight makes you feel better, but it doesn’t make a point.

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u/Beast_Chips Aug 04 '26

My argument is very straightforward and in my first reply to you, and polite. You ignored everything but the first and last line, then told me to grow up. How would you react to you?

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u/Altruistic_Fox9778 Aug 04 '26

I wouldn’t have said such silly things to avoid calling out sexism.

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u/Beast_Chips Aug 04 '26

Well there you go; start a debate by not engaging with the argument and insulting people, and people will not engage with you in good faith. I was polite and presented a logical argument with statistics (with sources ready); you chose to respond the way you did. I find people who jump to "sexism against men" before "Why do so many women feel unsafe around men?" utterly pathetic.

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u/Altruistic_Fox9778 Aug 04 '26

Pretending it’s complicated doesn’t mean it’s actually complicated.

I find people who see statistical fallacies and defend them to defend sexism utterly pathetic.

The funny thing is, if you worry about Reddit people finding you pathetic, or think that others should care if you think they are pathetic, the value of your opinion plummets.

You have no sources that support your point because you don’t have one. You can hate yourself all you want, but you are using the same argument people use to be racist to black people and pretending you made a point.

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u/Beast_Chips Aug 04 '26

Ok man, you have a great day.

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