# My unique situation invalidates your entire position! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 16, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319 "2005-02-16T04:37:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/41 "2005-02-17T00:06:16Z")
> [@The Devil's Grandmother](#): > > In my experience, most people cannot filter out anecdotal or irrelevant information when trying to make or study an argument. Ooooh, irony poisoning! Just kidding; it’s a valid point. ---
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/42 "2005-02-17T00:18:14Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Nuh-uh! Baby penguins are brownish-grey, you sick sick bastard. Not to mention that their feet and beaks are often neither black nor white. I think. And let’s not forget about these guys. Is that…yellow? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/43 "2005-02-17T00:41:22Z")
> [@LindyHopper](#): > > Not to mention that their feet and beaks are often neither black nor white. I think. > > And let’s not forget about these guys. Is that…yellow? I was thinking of [these guys](http://www.dunhamssports.com/graphics/product_images/p273916reg.jpg), myself. ---
**Author:** ![Ninja\_Pizza\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f04885/32.png) [@Ninja\_Pizza\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ninja_Pizza_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/44 "2005-02-17T01:46:03Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > You people seem to have forgotten the sentence most useful when faced with these people, “Shut the fuck up, moron!” I, personally, find that a heaping dose of “Yeah, so?” is quite useful with those people. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/45 "2005-02-17T05:04:45Z")
Oh, oh, I thought of a better name - The Doctor McCoy Effect. “Why, you green-blooded, pointy-eared Vulcan…”, from Dr. McCoy’s eternally annoying over-reacting to anything Spock says factually. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/46 "2005-02-17T05:38:45Z")
> [@Rufus Xavier](#): > > Bad advice. One time when I said that to someone, they kicked me in the nuts with a lead-toed boot and now I’m sterile. Didn’t happen in 1960, did it? Do you remember how long the contact was? ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/47 "2005-02-17T13:17:42Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Didn’t happen in 1960, did it? Do you remember how long the contact was? The entire exchange can’t have taken more than 20 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/48 "2005-02-17T13:34:18Z")
> [@The Devil's Grandmother](#): > > Sorry, but I gotta disagree with you on this one. If most (more than 50%) people where capable of recognizing anecdotal information when it was presented, we would not need to have message board like this one. In my experience, most people cannot filter out anecdotal or irrelevant information when trying to make or study an argument. Does the world come to end when you hear an opinion not supported by data? If all we wanted was data I don’t think many of us would read sdmb regularly. ---
**Author:** ![abbeytxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@abbeytxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abbeytxs)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/49 "2005-02-17T15:37:00Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Tons of things are truly black and white. Penguins are black and white. How dare you tell the penguins they’re not truly what they are, you jerk! > > 😃 Not all penguins are black and white! Some are grey and white, some are kind of brownish and white. So there! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![abbeytxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@abbeytxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abbeytxs)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/50 "2005-02-17T15:41:18Z")
> [@abbeytxs](#): > > Not all penguins are black and white! Some are grey and white, some are kind of brownish and white. So there! 😉 And some are like what other posters have already said, if I had bothered to read the rest of the thread before posting. So there, again! ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/51 "2005-02-17T16:57:52Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > If the anecdote is about Brent Spiner, does it count double? Ow. I just shot chewing gum out my nose. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/52 "2005-02-17T17:05:31Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > Eh, I’m not so sure about that. A collection of biased and sloppily-collected anecdotes is data, even if it’s bad or worthless data. Okay, I’ll concede that. Can we all rally around, “The plural of ‘ancedote’ is ‘baised and unreliable data.’” ? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/53 "2005-02-17T17:30:28Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > Okay, I’ll concede that. Can we all rally around, “The plural of ‘ancedote’ is ‘baised and unreliable data.’” ? 😉 Hm, interesting question. I think this is simply subjective data, versus objective data. Is one more valid than the other? One is collected more rigourously, under controlled conditions, but that doesn’t make subjective data false. My experiences are my experiences. ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/54 "2005-02-17T17:49:24Z")
Yeah **featherlou**? Well, my experience is that your experience is _wrong!_ I mean really! I wasn’t there or anything but there is no _possible_ way it happened like that! Seriously, it breaks the laws of nature! And nobody would do _that_ with a vacuum and an RPG! I really have no idea who **featherlou** is, I just wanted to join the rant 'cuz like…we all experience life differently and like… your POV is no more or less valid than mine 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/55 "2005-02-22T00:08:12Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > I think this is why some of the transsexual threads get so heated. You have a transsexual (or budding transsexual or proto-transsexual, whatever) make very firm pronouncements about transsexuality, not just about their case in particular. Then someone challenges them. That someone is typically on the same side of the argument as the OP, but this of course only makes matters worse and not better. The fights we have with people like ourselves are far more vicious than those we have with people who hold “opposite” views. (Who often don’t anyway, but that’s another issue.) > > Personally, I’m fascinated by Kaitlin’s threads, and bewitched by her personality and impressed by her knowledge. So thanks for providing the opportunity to say that all my quips about the stria terminalis and all my teasing of her are just my way of saying that I treat her the same as everyone else I like and respect. > > Which is what she wants and how it should be. Same goes for all the weirdos who believe in evolution and a gay gene. Sounds like a reference to me and Arwin from a couple of weeks ago. We ended up agreeing on just about all of the important points after a few bumpy places. I’m careful to label my personal experiences as just that and to try to separate my factual arguments from my anecdotal ones. I even go out of my way to point out that many of my experiences are not typical of transsexuals in general. However, I do think that anectodal evidence has a place in an argument, and furthermore, that people who literally are the suject of or intimately involved in a debate / discussion have a perspective that may in certain circumstances carry more weight than that of an outsider. Note that I don’t claim different levels of proof required for factual matters, merely that the personal experiences of someone who has been a transsexual, or has been raped, or has tried to hit a major league curveball as relates to that subject are neither a unique situation nor should they be discounted because they are merely anectdotal evidence. When discussing the mechanics of pool, a physics professor and Jeanette Lee would both have relevant information to bring to the table that the other doesn’t posess. It’s never an either or situation. ---
**Author:** ![FaerieBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FaerieBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FaerieBeth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/56 "2005-02-22T00:36:23Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Tons of things are truly black and white. Penguins are black and white. How dare you tell the penguins they’re not truly what they are, you jerk! > 😃 This is patently incorrect. I have a friend who happens to be a penguin, and I asked him if he was truly black and white. Of course not! He possesses some lovely yellow highlights and orange beak, and now he’s [pissed](http://www.geocities.com/penguins_are_back/picturegallery/images/rockhopper4.jpg) at you for having the audacity to deny his individuality and his heritage! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/57 "2005-02-22T00:36:52Z")
Indeed. Only someone who has never taken recreational drugs can have the special experience that brings - that particularly “high”! ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319/58 "2005-02-22T03:11:44Z")
Teacher: No even numbers are prime. Student: 2 Teacher: Anecdotal evidence! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-unique-situation-invalidates-your-entire-position/290319.md?page=2)