True. But I do think we’ve run enough experiments on ‘don’t say anyone is a bad person, only point out bad actions and bad logic and false beliefs’ to know that people by default read that as claims about who is bad, and we need better tech for what to do about this.
As long as we understand that “bad person” is shorthand for “past and likely near-future behaviors are interfering with group goals”, It’s a reasonable judgement to make. And it’s certainly useful to call out people you’d like to eject from the group, or to reduce in status, or to force a behavioral change on.
I don’t object to calling someone a bad person, I only object to believing that such a thing is real.
The thing is, I don’t think that shorthand (along with similar things like “You’re an idiot”) ever stays understood outside of very carefully maintained systems of people working closely together in super high trust situations, even if it starts out understood.
I’d agree. Outside of closely-knit, high-trust situations, I don’t think it’s achievable to have that subtlety of conceptual communication. You can remind (some) people, and you can use more precise terminology where the distinction is both important and likely to succeed. In other cases, maintaining your internal standards of epistemic hygiene is valuable, even when playing status games you don’t like very much.
True. But I do think we’ve run enough experiments on ‘don’t say anyone is a bad person, only point out bad actions and bad logic and false beliefs’ to know that people by default read that as claims about who is bad, and we need better tech for what to do about this.
As long as we understand that “bad person” is shorthand for “past and likely near-future behaviors are interfering with group goals”, It’s a reasonable judgement to make. And it’s certainly useful to call out people you’d like to eject from the group, or to reduce in status, or to force a behavioral change on.
I don’t object to calling someone a bad person, I only object to believing that such a thing is real.
The thing is, I don’t think that shorthand (along with similar things like “You’re an idiot”) ever stays understood outside of very carefully maintained systems of people working closely together in super high trust situations, even if it starts out understood.
I’d agree. Outside of closely-knit, high-trust situations, I don’t think it’s achievable to have that subtlety of conceptual communication. You can remind (some) people, and you can use more precise terminology where the distinction is both important and likely to succeed. In other cases, maintaining your internal standards of epistemic hygiene is valuable, even when playing status games you don’t like very much.