Look, if your argument for "nobody should ever trust anybody ever" is

[conuly]

"Something bad happened to somebody once, and when she ran to a stranger for help, she got raped" then at the very least you're going to have to give me this person's name or a link to the news story or something. Normally I'd say that thing about anecdotes and data, but without any identifying information this isn't even an anecdote.

Also, even if that story is 100% true as reported and actually happened to an actual person, never trusting anybody ever is still a very unhealthy way to live. I don't think the cost:benefit ratio actually adds up.

Comments

[lilysea]

Even if it really happened once (and it doesn't sound like they provided any evidence that it did)

there is a difference between

"this has happened to 1 in 10,000 people"

and "this has happened to 1 in 8 BILLION people"

[conuly]

How the fuck did we get to eight billion people? I'm sure it was six billion just a few years ago.

[lilysea]

Or to put it another way:

there have been cases of taxi drivers sexually assaulting passengers

but people are still better off catching a taxi home than driving themselves home if they have been drinking

because someone's chance of being seriously injured if they drink-drive

are far higher than someone's chances of being assaulted if they catch a taxi.

[cimorene]

Yeah, the reason I wouldn't need a source is that that isn't actually an argument. Like plenty of things have happened even worse than that - eg murder - as a result of trusting the wrong people, but that still doesn't mean that it's practicable or an improvement in life for nobody to trust anybody ever. At best that is highly debatable. Source: the fields of philosophy, sociology, and social psychology

[conuly]

I'm sure, actually, that it is harmful to live like this. Not that anybody wants to hear it who is committed to their "nobody should trust anybody" rhetoric.

[silveradept]

It doesn't work out, and worse still, if you behave like you don't trust anybody, them you're going to have other people behave as though you are untrustworthy, and the feedback loop continues.

[conuly]

I had somebody once, a kid, tell me that hardly anybody would've handed her the five dollars she'd dropped on the ground without noticing. And I said "Well, wouldn't you have handed it back to me?" but she didn't get the point.

[wendelah1]

I wonder what happened to the individual who is making this argument. Who hurt them?

[conuly]

Well, if they're the woman in that story, I guess a random stranger and then a truck driver who was also a stranger. In which case I feel bad for asking for a source.

[swingandswirl]

... that sounds like a truly awful way to live. I hope that person can let go of whatever is making them that anxious, because it doesn't sound like they're rooted in reality on this particular topic.