The concept of a distributed troll attack helped me with my mental health first. This in turn improved the quality of my discussions. Here are some insights and abilities that helped me.
Don’t assume that person A is using their motte argument to justify person B’s bailey. This is conspiracy theorizing, and a recipe for alienation and poor thinking. Don’t make others responsible for your own anxious thought patterns.
Bailey arguments are sometimes actually used as poetic shorthands, not as practical beliefs. For example, I have a friend who claimed a while ago that stones are conscious. We had an argument, then dropped it. Later the same thing got brought up, and I realized that she really meant that it’s a helpful spiritual practice for her to occasionally pray or express gratitude to animals, plants, and the earth. So, motte and bailey or just concise poetic language? Well, my friend is a poet, so...
Baileys are sometimes shibboleths, not conspiracies. They reveal your passion for the motte, and suggest that you’re also a subscriber to many other beliefs and cultural practices. Everybody picks up on the nuanced and sensible motte from shared cultural practice.
If somebody’s been using a bailey in the context of social understanding, or as a shibboleth, then has an outsider take them literally, they may forget they don’t mean it literally. Sucking people into fighting a losing battle they didn’t choose isn’t victory, it’s manipulation.
Some people really do literally subscribe to the bailey. They are often people who lack a certain level of social intelligence. They can be very smart in other ways.
Learning how to screen for 1-4 is an ongoing challenge for me. It helps me diagnose #5 when I see it, but I often get confused. This tends to lead to alienation and bickering. I don’t think it’s dark arty to use this awareness to throw out the correct shibboleths, to finally create space for the sensible discussion you actually want.
The concept of a distributed troll attack helped me with my mental health first. This in turn improved the quality of my discussions. Here are some insights and abilities that helped me.
Don’t assume that person A is using their motte argument to justify person B’s bailey. This is conspiracy theorizing, and a recipe for alienation and poor thinking. Don’t make others responsible for your own anxious thought patterns.
Bailey arguments are sometimes actually used as poetic shorthands, not as practical beliefs. For example, I have a friend who claimed a while ago that stones are conscious. We had an argument, then dropped it. Later the same thing got brought up, and I realized that she really meant that it’s a helpful spiritual practice for her to occasionally pray or express gratitude to animals, plants, and the earth. So, motte and bailey or just concise poetic language? Well, my friend is a poet, so...
Baileys are sometimes shibboleths, not conspiracies. They reveal your passion for the motte, and suggest that you’re also a subscriber to many other beliefs and cultural practices. Everybody picks up on the nuanced and sensible motte from shared cultural practice.
If somebody’s been using a bailey in the context of social understanding, or as a shibboleth, then has an outsider take them literally, they may forget they don’t mean it literally. Sucking people into fighting a losing battle they didn’t choose isn’t victory, it’s manipulation.
Some people really do literally subscribe to the bailey. They are often people who lack a certain level of social intelligence. They can be very smart in other ways.
Learning how to screen for 1-4 is an ongoing challenge for me. It helps me diagnose #5 when I see it, but I often get confused. This tends to lead to alienation and bickering. I don’t think it’s dark arty to use this awareness to throw out the correct shibboleths, to finally create space for the sensible discussion you actually want.