Then, due to the structure of this forum, you don’t get to see that I’d already taken your advice. I fail to see how that benefits you or I. Rather, it seems this site is a less interesting place for that result.
It benefits the site in that it makes it impossible to write top-level posts for someone unwilling or incapable of adhering to the locally accepted norms of discourse. That means the system did its job just fine.
Who here assumes the comment was directed towards them? Probably either insecure people, or people who downvoted my comments and thus jettisoned the functionality of my account here.
I apologize to the insecure people. The other people deserve my parting insult.
No one has to assume that the comment was directed at them to have reasons to downvote you. You don’t have to be the victim to oppose the perpetrator of violence. You, of all people, should understand that.
It’s pretty disheartening how, after receiving advice not to insult people, you completely dismiss it and proceed to divide the LessWrong users into the insecure, whom you condescendingly pat on the head and others who are not worthy of basic politeness.
Your emotions are there for a reason. If you react negatively to the insinuation that you’re not behaving properly or are in some way sub-optimal, examine the criticism for merit. I’ve often done that, and found myself to be wanting in many areas. In some of those areas I’ve improved myself. The criticisms were legitimate. I’ll certainly try to become a better writer.
My emotions are there because evolution shaped them to push me towards actions that would increase my inclusive genetic fitness if I lived in the ancestral environment. Blindly following them is not helpful toward achieving my higher-level goals. Your willingness to (proudly and boldly) push my emotional buttons marks you as either ignorant of evolutionary psychology or outright malicious. All of that applies to you, too. Your emotions aren’t there to help you in your fight against injustice; they actually sabotage that fight. You speak proudly of refusing to bow down to conformist riffraff and that knowledgable people already take you seriously. You also say, later:
Others may only take me seriously when they wind up on a truck bound for a barbed-wire surrounded encampment.
When that happens, you have already lost. Weren’t those passive fools, the unenlightened rabble, the conformist sheep, now on their way to destruction, also amongst the people you were trying to protect? And by failing to reach out to them in a way that would allow them to appreciate your superior insight, haven’t you doomed them?
The way you’re acting right now, it seems like you’re more concerned with being able to say ‘I told you so’ when the worst case scenario occurs rather than actually preventing it.
It benefits the site in that it makes it impossible to write top-level posts for someone unwilling or incapable of adhering to the locally accepted norms of discourse. That means the system did its job just fine.
No one has to assume that the comment was directed at them to have reasons to downvote you. You don’t have to be the victim to oppose the perpetrator of violence. You, of all people, should understand that.
It’s pretty disheartening how, after receiving advice not to insult people, you completely dismiss it and proceed to divide the LessWrong users into the insecure, whom you condescendingly pat on the head and others who are not worthy of basic politeness.
My emotions are there because evolution shaped them to push me towards actions that would increase my inclusive genetic fitness if I lived in the ancestral environment. Blindly following them is not helpful toward achieving my higher-level goals. Your willingness to (proudly and boldly) push my emotional buttons marks you as either ignorant of evolutionary psychology or outright malicious. All of that applies to you, too. Your emotions aren’t there to help you in your fight against injustice; they actually sabotage that fight. You speak proudly of refusing to bow down to conformist riffraff and that knowledgable people already take you seriously. You also say, later:
When that happens, you have already lost. Weren’t those passive fools, the unenlightened rabble, the conformist sheep, now on their way to destruction, also amongst the people you were trying to protect? And by failing to reach out to them in a way that would allow them to appreciate your superior insight, haven’t you doomed them?
The way you’re acting right now, it seems like you’re more concerned with being able to say ‘I told you so’ when the worst case scenario occurs rather than actually preventing it.