What inaccurate historical factoid do you just go with?

SSTF@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 65 points –
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I'm gonna be that guy... but former English teacher here - By definition, factoids are inaccurate :) inaccuracies repeated so often that people 'go with it', that's when they become factoids.

'inaccurate factoid' is an example of a tautology. Like naan bread, or armed gunman.

You are technically correct, the best kind of correct.

C'mon dude. As a history teacher, I can tell you that it is definitely possible to fire a gun without arms.

I'm not even a gun dude and I've heard of those guns that shoot if you look at em funny. Hi points? I don't remember.

If you're a former English teacher you should be aware that language changes and while "factoid" was originally coined to mean a made up fact, the term is currently mostly used to refer to small inconsequential facts.

A gunman doesn't cease to be a gunman if he's disarmed. Though he can't be a gunman if he wasn't armed in the first place.

Wouldn't it be a pleonasm? Tautology is more about the logic realm, specifically about repeating an argument or a statement as it they were different. Here "inaccurate factoid" is merely inaccurate vocabulary.