The pirateat40's opponents have called this BS and reasonably asserted that pirate is running a ponzi scheme based on logical reasoning and common sense.
Please explain to me how this statement is remotely objective in any sense whatsoever. "reasonably"? "common sense"?
I understand it was mostly use of Occam's razor and "celectial teapot" argument that effectively shifted burden of proof to pirate et al. Until such proof is provided it seems to be reasonable to treat the scheme as a poinzi.
Burden of proof on Pirate I agree with. (Side note: I hadn't heard of the "celestial teapot", thanks, that's quite intriguing!)
Mostly, I strongly object to the term "common sense" as I have yet to see it used in any way not effectively synonymous to "This is obvious, and if you don't see it, you're {wrong,stupid}". Serious subjective bias creeping in on my part, probably, but regardless, I don't think the term "common sense" can really be used objectively.
In general, I fail to understand how using specific examples, most of which are (albeit in my opinion) extreme cases, from one particular incident lends credibility to your points; I would postulate that it does the opposite through alienating those pro-Pirate and causing those anti-Pirate to be motivated to agree with you for reasons related to the political leaning of your post rather than the legitimacy of logical fallacies presented therein. What is the goal here: more objective debates, or another pro/anti Pirate battleground thread?
This obviously spices up the thread and takes away some purity. On the other hand, simply quoting usual examples, would make my post a trivial restatement of usual sources. The post itself was based on argument posted elsewhere about the pirate affair, and we can squarely blame my laziness and corners cutting for not coming up with pure and abstract post.
Fair enough, the whole Pirate controversy is quite the poster child for everything you mentioned, that I cannot debate. I probably responded more spitefully than necessary. I'm just tired of all the Pirate threads, regardless of what side they're arguing for.