I tried to focus on people attacking negative intentions/connotations. I was expressing myself poorly and my comment had a lot of hidden assumptions. My comment was not even wrong. Your response is clear and helpful, thanks. I’m not sure I can improve upon my original comment, but here are some thoughts on the matter:
I think it would be useful to categorize intentions/connotations further. I see no problem in articulating hostile intentions behind a comment rudely stating that someone is fat for example. I think the reason for this is that the connotations of that kind of a statement are common knowledge and high probability. If you disapprovingly point out such connotations, nobody can claim that you’re trying to sneak them into the other person’s comment to dismiss it unfairly.
Then again I think there’s this category of statements where it seems to me that connotations can vary wildly. Even if you have a good reason to think that some particular connotation is the most probable, it’s just one option among many. Here the rate of false positives will be high. I feel in such situations attacking one connotation over another seems like a dishonest way to dismiss a statement.
I acknowledge that situational factors complicate matters further.
Even if you have a good reason to think that some particular connotation is the most probable, it’s just one option among many. Here the rate of false positives will be high.
Sure, that’s true. We might disagree about how high my confidence in a particular most-probable-interpretation of the motives behind a particular statement can legitimately be, but it’s clear that for some statements that confidence will be fairly low.
I feel in such situations attacking one connotation over another seems like a dishonest way to dismiss a statement.
Do you have any sense of why you feel this way?
For example, do you believe it is a dishonest way to dismiss a statement? Or just that it seems that way? (Seems that way to whom?)
I tried to focus on people attacking negative intentions/connotations. I was expressing myself poorly and my comment had a lot of hidden assumptions. My comment was not even wrong. Your response is clear and helpful, thanks. I’m not sure I can improve upon my original comment, but here are some thoughts on the matter:
I think it would be useful to categorize intentions/connotations further. I see no problem in articulating hostile intentions behind a comment rudely stating that someone is fat for example. I think the reason for this is that the connotations of that kind of a statement are common knowledge and high probability. If you disapprovingly point out such connotations, nobody can claim that you’re trying to sneak them into the other person’s comment to dismiss it unfairly.
Then again I think there’s this category of statements where it seems to me that connotations can vary wildly. Even if you have a good reason to think that some particular connotation is the most probable, it’s just one option among many. Here the rate of false positives will be high. I feel in such situations attacking one connotation over another seems like a dishonest way to dismiss a statement.
I acknowledge that situational factors complicate matters further.
Sure, that’s true. We might disagree about how high my confidence in a particular most-probable-interpretation of the motives behind a particular statement can legitimately be, but it’s clear that for some statements that confidence will be fairly low.
Do you have any sense of why you feel this way?
For example, do you believe it is a dishonest way to dismiss a statement? Or just that it seems that way? (Seems that way to whom?)