The Quantization fallacy (“Selective Quantization”) is done by taking a speech act about a topic with depth and removing the depth from it (quantizing it) in a way that makes the speech act sound bad. Coined on Twitter by Jeffrey Crenshaw while debating against porkyvectors to porky’s displeasure, but who cares because he’s porky.
Examples
- Stripping context of the various reasons a person on social media might block another account to make it seem like a person who complains about accounts that block to avoid arguing is a hypocrite for blocking an account that has harassed them for months. In this example, a cluster of gradients (how toxic was the person being blocked? How many chances did they get? etc) is collapsed into nothing such that only the act of blocking (yes/no) is evaluated, as if all instances of blocking are the same.
- Calling someone “misogynistic” because they talk mean to a single woman who was talking mean to them first. This strips all context from the specific encounter and reframes the target’s mindset from “I’m mad enough at THIS particular woman for THIS particular reason to tear into her” to the lower resolution “I disrespect all women!” strawman.