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OOP = Obviously Oxmoronic Posting

In double-checking today's entry, I see that I wrote:

Saying that script is bad because spotty teenage vandals use it is obviously specious.

Hmm.

Is there such a thing as “obviously specious”, or is that an oxymoron? 

 

Published Monday, March 08, 2004 2:19 PM by Eric Lippert

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Mike Shaffer said:

I will say that an unintelligent rube like myself wasn't really aware of this, until you pointed it out...perhaps it's like "pretty much a concensus..."
March 8, 2004 3:16 PM
 

Louis Parks said:

Doesn't seem like an oxymoron to me. Specious deals with the falseness of a claim, not that the falseness is easy to see.

I'm basing my opinion from definitions found here:
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/specious
March 8, 2004 4:27 PM
 

Eric Lippert said:

> Specious deals with the falseness of a claim, not that the falseness is easy to see

Oh yes it does. "specious" means "plausible but false", according to your link. If an argument is "obviously false" then it can hardly be plausible, can it?
March 9, 2004 10:28 AM
 

Kyle Lahnakoski said:

"obviously specious" means false. Although a deeper analysis of the meaning of specious could lead one to conclude "obviously specious" is the same as "old wifes tale" or "urban legend".
March 9, 2004 11:10 AM
 

indranil banerjee said:

It is an oxymoron but in subtly obvious way
July 25, 2004 3:07 PM

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About Eric Lippert

Eric Lippert is a senior developer on the Microsoft C# compiler team. Before that he worked on the framework of Visual Studio Tools For Office. Before that, he worked on the compilers, runtimes and tools for VBScript, JScript, Windows Script Host and other Microsoft Scripting technologies. He lives in Seattle and spends his free time editing books about programming languages, playing the piano, and trying to keep his tiny sailboat upright in Puget Sound.

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