An American citizen born and raised in California is unsettled after receiving an e-mail from the US Department of Homeland Security ordering him to leave the country āimmediately.ā
Aldo Martinez-Gomez received the DHS notice on April 11, threatening ācriminal prosecutionā and fines if he does not depart within seven days.
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Martinez-Gomez works full-time assisting immigrants in court for a non-profit and believes his advocacy work may have placed him on the governmentās radar.
Occamās Razor comes from a 14th century priest who studied logic. Itās been gone over by philosophers in the centuries since and is generally considered valid.
Hanlonās Razor comes from a joke book published in 1980.
Hanlonās Razor is basically a special case of Occamās Razor.
Making a mistake or doing something stupid is easy. Conspiring to do something malicious is not as easy. The simpler explanation is generally that something is a mistake rather than an elaborate conspiracy. So, Occamās Razor says that the simplest explanation (a mistake) is probably the right one.
Fwiw Occamās razor is actually a little more precise than āchoose the simplest explanationā. Specifically, it defines what āsimplestā actually means, in such a way that makes it easier to see how you could describe Hanlonās razor as a special case of Occamās.
Occamās razor is that you should choose the solution which requires the fewest assumptions. Assuming someone made a mistake is precisely one assumption. That they were acting maliciously requires several, including having the motive to do it and, in a case involving large organisations, having the capability to cover it up.
From a logical perspective, if youāre trying to discover the truth of something youāre inevitably going to start weighing and eliminating variables. It makes sense to start from the absolute bottom, prove or disprove that, then move on.
Itās just razors all the way downā¦
Is it? Hitchensā razor says that youāve provided no evidence for your turtle-like stack of razors, so your claim can be dismissed without evidence.
While true, the intent behind Hanlonās has been expressed for millennia. The Principal of Charity (which was only named in the 1950s)
Basically, never assume the worst about someone.
The problem here is when there is actual malice. But thatās when Occamās razor comes in.