ClaimsScott Alexander

“I was eventually able to find two people who came out and opposed it, way near the bottom.”

Scott Alexander, blogger, writing on Slate Star Codex 30 September 2014 I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup (Slate Star Codex) archived copy

Factual Philosophy, ethics and society

In a Reddit thread of 10,401 comments asking for people against gay marriage, the author found only two commenters who opposed it, near the bottom.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

What would count as true or false

Judge as of 2014-09-30. The claim is that in the Reddit thread of about 10,401 comments asking for people against gay marriage, the author found only two commenters who opposed it, near the bottom. True: an archived copy of the thread shows roughly that many comments, and only about two top-level or substantive comments actually opposing gay marriage, placed low in the sort order. Mostly true: the thread and the near-absence of opponents are confirmed, but the exact count (e.g. three or four rather than two) or the comment total is slightly off. Mixed: the thread exists, but opponents were noticeably more common than claimed, though still a small minority, or they were not near the bottom. Mostly false: the thread exists but has a fair number of visible opposing comments, so 'only two, way near the bottom' badly understates them. False: no such thread exists, or opposing comments were common and prominent.

Set before the research began.

Reasoning

No evidence with a verified quote was found apart from the claim's own source, so the claim was not judged.

Cite this claim

Scott Alexander, “In a Reddit thread of 10,401 comments asking for people against gay marriage, the author found only two commenters who opposed it, near the bottom.” (said 30 September 2014). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_a03ea7046325, method 0.1.0+8bea457b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_a03ea7046325

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Scott Alexander, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

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All of them

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