Well if you have to choose between attacking someone’s object-level arguments about politics or attacking their person, I would say the latter is a greater evil even when the topic is controversial.
In the comments to this post I would avoid both, it’s reasonable to agree to disagree or just take the argument to PMs or something, or maybe have a special ‘politics’ thread. I mean you can even say “I disagree with X and took it to PMs” to avoid giving the impression that his assertion was unchallenged.
“I disagree with X and took it to PMs” to avoid giving the impression that his assertion was unchallenged.
What would be the point of that. To convince the other guy to see his mistakes? That only works if the person you’re debating is well meaning and exceptionally rational.
Otherwise, the point of debating in public is so that observers can see for themselves who’s being rational.
Yeah but that kind of debating tends to massively incentivize techniques for sophistry, leads to long pointless debates that take up time and yield no new knowledge. Here on LW we aim higher than that, and that is why there are norms to try and prevent it.
Didn’t you also just say you don’t want object level political discussions?
Well if you have to choose between attacking someone’s object-level arguments about politics or attacking their person, I would say the latter is a greater evil even when the topic is controversial.
In the comments to this post I would avoid both, it’s reasonable to agree to disagree or just take the argument to PMs or something, or maybe have a special ‘politics’ thread. I mean you can even say “I disagree with X and took it to PMs” to avoid giving the impression that his assertion was unchallenged.
What would be the point of that. To convince the other guy to see his mistakes? That only works if the person you’re debating is well meaning and exceptionally rational.
Otherwise, the point of debating in public is so that observers can see for themselves who’s being rational.
Yeah but that kind of debating tends to massively incentivize techniques for sophistry, leads to long pointless debates that take up time and yield no new knowledge. Here on LW we aim higher than that, and that is why there are norms to try and prevent it.