I agree that it’s annoying when people are mocked for saying something they didn’t say. But Nesov was actually making an implicit argument here, not just having fun: he was pointing out that timtyler’s analogies tend to be surface-level and insubstantive. The kind of thing that I’ve seen on Pharyngula are instead unjustified ad hominem attacks that don’t shed any light on possible flaws in the poster’s arguments. That said, I think Nesov’s comment was flirting with the line.
I agree that it’s annoying when people are mocked for saying something they didn’t say. But Nesov was actually making an implicit argument here, not just having fun: he was pointing out that timtyler’s analogies tend to be surface-level and insubstantive. The kind of thing that I’ve seen on Pharyngula are instead unjustified ad hominem attacks that don’t shed any light on possible flaws in the poster’s arguments. That said, I think Nesov’s comment was flirting with the line.