this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

No man sky also barely has a story and has zero voice acting. It's apples and oranges, just because they're both fruit doesn't mean they can be compared

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Except you just compared them in saying they are both fruit. In fact, saying they are both fruit is finding a commonality between them when comparing. There are many metrics on which Apples and Oranges can be compared. They are different colors, have a different internal structures, and different juice content. These are negatively correlated comparisons. More positive correlations would be that they are both roughly spherical, provide vitamin C, and grow on trees.

I have always hated that expression. You can compare anything since comparison is just the act of identifying similarities and differences (positive and negative correlations). One can make meaningful comparisons between and apple and a suspension bridge if the situation calls for it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ohhh my godd, me too. It's so anti-intellectual.

To anyone who might care, you can identify an apple as a low-quality orange, but that doesn't also mean the apple is a low-quality apple; they're optimized to different ends. That is, I think, the point of the expression.

But, if we're trying to evaluate them on something like taste, which is entirely subjective, yeah, I'm comparing those shits. And, I'm going oranges all the way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You shouldn't compare apples and oranges because they are both great but for different reasons and purposes. It isn't anti-intellectual to recognize that apples are way better for pies than oranges are but if you want some amazing juice and don't want to go through a whole process to make it good; oranges are the way to go.

This and the many other examples I didn't want to fill this page with are the reason why it's a saying. It's much faster than prefacing what exactly said apples and oranges are going to be used for before giving a real answer and I personally feel it shouldn't at all be taken literally.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

While I don't disagree with you in spirit, the use case for most instances of the expression are to dissuade the act of comparison at all because the two quantities are so dissimilar that the correlations are irrelevant.

It is an anti-intellectual statement because it presupposes that the person doing the comparing is not able to distinguish between meaningful comparisons and ones which are irrational but support their argument. It ranks up there with "big words" as far as I am concerned, saying more about the person they are being said by rather than the person they are being said to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So why not stand on that hill when it's relevant?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I do. That is a side effect of always standing on the hill. I am there when it matters, but also when it doesn't. Such is the curse of my superpowers.

Captain Pedant AWAAAAYYYY!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

This made me giggle like a little girl