#attempted wank? logical fallacies in action? idek

[mittensmorgul]

(different anon) But Sam having his own tv in his own room doesn't mean anything? Like I have a tv in my room but we do have a den area with a tv too. I'm just not sure "Sam has a tv in his own room, so him watching tv any other place in the bunker makes zero sense" is a strong argument? Like, does no one else hang out with your family in other parts of the house? I'm not trying to be a jackass, this one just has me baffled and doesn't seem based in normal human behavior.

Like…I’m not trying to even make a “strong argument” here with that single point. I assume you’re referring to this reply I made earlier today:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/172142611065/hi-so-i-have-a-question-im-a-little-confused

And you’ve selected one of the maybe two dozen different things discussed in all those linked posts in that other post to say, “this is the one thing I can’t wrap my head around.” I mean, you didn’t even reference the entire sentence I used to describe the tv in Sam’s room, let alone the short paragraph that supplied context for it:

Sam has a tv in his room and watches his nerdy documentaries and like… Beastmaster in there. Dean’s got a “Dean Cave” set up like a dive bar (which… we know is not Sam’s hangout of choice), where he’s probably gonna watch cowboy movies (like we canonically know he does with Cas, and which we canonically know that Sam is not a fan of).

Because you can’t just pick and choose out of context statements and declare the entire basis for discussion invalid based on that, as if the five additional posts I linked there didn’t exist to support the bigger picture read based on the actual themes, subtext, and repeated text we’ve been given to interpret this with.

Now, that doesn’t invalidate a different reading than the one I presented, as my personal theory and read on the potential situation. When presented with a list of several dozen facts, you can’t point at half of one fact and say, “well, that doesn’t seem right to me” and summarily ignore all the rest as therefore irrelevant.

In no way did I say the thing you quoted:

I’m just not sure “Sam has a tv in his own room, so him watching tv any other place in the bunker makes zero sense” is a strong argument? Like, does no one else hang out with your family in other parts of the house? I’m not trying to be a jackass, this one just has me baffled and doesn’t seem based in normal human behavior.

I never said that Sam having a TV in his room means that Sam would therefore never watch TV anywhere else in the bunker, because you are right. That does make zero sense! If there were a tv in the war room, or the kitchen, I don’t think he’d say, “oh gosh, but I have a tv in my room! I can’t be unfaithful to my room tv, so I’ll refrain from watching these other tv’s!” That’s… beyond moronic to assume.

But speaking as a real human, who typically exhibits “normal human behavior” under most circumstances, I live in a house with two other “normal humans” as well as two televisions and multiple other electronic devices capable of receiving television programming (three laptops, an ipad, and each of us have a phone and netflix and all that). There are certain things all three of us watch together (the evening news, Jeopardy, etc.). There are certain things that only my husband and I watch together (TWD, NCIS, the Amazing Race). There are programs that I couldn’t give a flying fuck about that he wants to watch, at the same time I want to watch something else. The kid watches all sorts of things that neither of us watch. In this amazing age of technology, we don’t all have to huddle around the family tv and watch the one program airing at that moment.

And CANONICALLY, Sam couldn’t give a flying fuck about cowboy movies. He’s referred to Dean’s love of them as a “fetish,” while rolling his eyes. And Dean made fun of Sam’s personal movie collection in 13.05. There have been NUMEROUS times over the last 13 years where each of them has pointedly referenced the other’s taste in films and television in a negative way (Sam mocking Dean’s obvious interest in Dr. Sexy, telenovelas, Sam’s complete obliviousness to Star Trek movies to Dean’s dismay, as well as Dean making fun of Sam’s enjoyment of foreign films, documentary type things, etc). We know there are still a few things they BOTH enjoy watching together (the occasional sportsball event, GoT, etc.). This is all CANON. So… for the most part, I find it strange that they’d mostly even WANT to watch the same things…

(and remember, these are two people who spent most of their lives and essentially their entire childhoods trapped together in terrible motel rooms with a single television that if they were lucky had decent reception and several shows to choose from at any given time. I can imagine arguing over whose turn it was to get to pick what to watch, you know? My sister and I had similar arguments for YEARS when we were kids, back in Ye Olden Days when most households really did only have one tv.)

So now that they’re adults, and now that they HAVE their own rooms and aren’t forced to spend every last second locked in motel rooms together or else escape (mostly in Dean’s case as canon tends to prove out) to whatever local dive bar was within walking distance of their shitty motel of the week just to have a sense of their own space… don’t you think they’d kind of revel in that a bit? Hell, I did when I finally moved out and had my own space.

Not to mention the fact that this is Supernatural. This show isn’t a demonstration, generally, of “normal human behavior,” just on the surface level. But also IT IS A TELEVISION SHOW, and NOT REAL LIFE. Things that have meaning in storytelling don’t necessarily translate to real life, and vice versa. So when a character decorates a room in their secret underground bunker, and it’s filled with little meaningful things from his past, subtextual nods to who this character is as a person, and then he names that room after HIMSELF, he’s staked a claim on it. Not as the “family room.” He literally calls it “The Dean Cave.” Not the “Sam and Dean Cave.” Right? That fact has meaning in storytelling.

But all of this is entirely beside the point, which is that you took my quote out of context, and additionally implied further information that I never did in my original post. That’s cheating. :P

Go back and reread the first chunk of quoted text, which is what I *actually* said, copy/pasted word for word. Then ask yourself if your question reads as if you were trying to be a jackass or not.