Perhaps he does. It wouldn’t exactly be an uncommon trait. However, there is a gap between thinking that some particular ideas are very bad and we’d be better off without them, and insisting on setting the rules of debate oneself, and it is not honest to claim that someone is doing the latter merely because you are sure they must be doing the former.
This thread is about setting the rules for discussions, isn’t it? Eagain is talking in the context of specifying in which framework discussing politics can be made to work on LW.
Yup. That is (I repeat) not the same thing as insisting that he get to establish the framework and set the rules.
(It seems to me that with at least equal justice someone could complain that you are determined to establish the framework and set the rules; it’s just that you prefer no framework and no rules. I don’t know whether that actually is your preference, but it seems to me that there’s as much evidence for it as there is for some of what you are saying about eagain’s mental state.)
Aren’t you? I mean, you’re not making concrete proposals yourself, of course; I don’t think I have ever seen you make a concrete constructive proposal about anything, as opposed to objecting to other people’s. But looking at the things you object to and the things you don’t, it seems to me that you’re taking a position on how LW’s discussions should be just as much as eagain is; you’re just expressing it by objecting to things that diverge from it, rather than by stating it explicitly.
Lumifer seems to object to things because he finds it enjoyable to object to things, and this is a good explanation for why he objects to things rather than making his own proposals. But this means that he is not necessarily taking a position on how discussion should be, since he would be likely to object to both a proposal and its opposite, just because it would still be fun to object.
I don’t think I have ever seen you make a concrete constructive proposal about anything, as opposed to objecting to other people’s.
Hmm. That sounds like a nice rule: anyone who spends all their posting efforts on objecting to other people’s ideas without putting forth anything constructive of their own shall be banned, or at least downvoted into oblivion.
Perhaps he does. It wouldn’t exactly be an uncommon trait. However, there is a gap between thinking that some particular ideas are very bad and we’d be better off without them, and insisting on setting the rules of debate oneself, and it is not honest to claim that someone is doing the latter merely because you are sure they must be doing the former.
This thread is about setting the rules for discussions, isn’t it? Eagain is talking in the context of specifying in which framework discussing politics can be made to work on LW.
Yup. That is (I repeat) not the same thing as insisting that he get to establish the framework and set the rules.
(It seems to me that with at least equal justice someone could complain that you are determined to establish the framework and set the rules; it’s just that you prefer no framework and no rules. I don’t know whether that actually is your preference, but it seems to me that there’s as much evidence for it as there is for some of what you are saying about eagain’s mental state.)
And yet I’m not telling LW how to set up discussions...
Aren’t you? I mean, you’re not making concrete proposals yourself, of course; I don’t think I have ever seen you make a concrete constructive proposal about anything, as opposed to objecting to other people’s. But looking at the things you object to and the things you don’t, it seems to me that you’re taking a position on how LW’s discussions should be just as much as eagain is; you’re just expressing it by objecting to things that diverge from it, rather than by stating it explicitly.
Lumifer seems to object to things because he finds it enjoyable to object to things, and this is a good explanation for why he objects to things rather than making his own proposals. But this means that he is not necessarily taking a position on how discussion should be, since he would be likely to object to both a proposal and its opposite, just because it would still be fun to object.
It seems to me that there are definite regularities in which proposals he objects to and which he doesn’t.
Hmm. That sounds like a nice rule: anyone who spends all their posting efforts on objecting to other people’s ideas without putting forth anything constructive of their own shall be banned, or at least downvoted into oblivion.
I think that would be excessive. Pointing out others’ mistakes is a useful activity. (Think of Socrates.) Also, downvoting is disabled right now.
The thing is, I understand the difference between argument points and policy proposals. These are very very different creatures.