The thing is, that’s an odd response. Look at the flow here:
Roland sez: should we really give up discussing PUA just to make women feel more comfortable?
Kaiokan sez: I don’t expect that many women on the site in the first place, because of XYZ, where XYZ is a fairly ambitious claim that’s likely to be disputed in itself.
Without XYZ, I think most of us, men and women, could agree on the basic point you’re trying to make, that is, we expect more men than women on the site. So why bring up XYZ? It doesn’t actually have a function in your argument other than the fact that you like it and you found an excuse to bring it up. (I’m often guilty of this too, but I suspect it’s bad logical hygiene and I’m trying to get rid of those habits.)
As for the actual question… well, it depends if we can trust ourselves to handle it well. Apparently the convention around here is that we don’t bring up topics that totally overwhelm rationality, because we’re trying to practice rationality. But ultimately we do live in a world where hot-button subjects exist and we have to respond to them one way or another, and potentially not just by avoidance. For somebody from my environment, and it seems for many others, the topic of PUA is a challenge. Maybe a fun challenge. But possibly one we can’t handle well (yet).
The thing is, that’s an odd response. Look at the flow here:
Roland sez: should we really give up discussing PUA just to make women feel more comfortable?
Kaiokan sez: I don’t expect that many women on the site in the first place, because of XYZ, where XYZ is a fairly ambitious claim that’s likely to be disputed in itself.
Without XYZ, I think most of us, men and women, could agree on the basic point you’re trying to make, that is, we expect more men than women on the site. So why bring up XYZ? It doesn’t actually have a function in your argument other than the fact that you like it and you found an excuse to bring it up. (I’m often guilty of this too, but I suspect it’s bad logical hygiene and I’m trying to get rid of those habits.)
As for the actual question… well, it depends if we can trust ourselves to handle it well. Apparently the convention around here is that we don’t bring up topics that totally overwhelm rationality, because we’re trying to practice rationality. But ultimately we do live in a world where hot-button subjects exist and we have to respond to them one way or another, and potentially not just by avoidance. For somebody from my environment, and it seems for many others, the topic of PUA is a challenge. Maybe a fun challenge. But possibly one we can’t handle well (yet).
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You need to back up that particular non-obvious statement with the reasons which are currently convincing you of that statement, yes. Your response to research suggesting that the factors you cite are nonpermanent would be appreciated.