That is a good point. Below, I related epistemic stalling to intentionality, but I also agree with your response. The reason why people say things like “but you’re white” often isn’t to offer some form of argumentative justification. Rather, people say those things to function like barriers to entry: only non-whites allowed.
There are, of course, ethical issues around that kind of response, but this post is about the pragmatics of speech, not its ethics. Still, this post seems to get wrong, as you point out, the actual pragmatics of why people do what is called “epistemic stalling”.
That is a good point. Below, I related epistemic stalling to intentionality, but I also agree with your response. The reason why people say things like “but you’re white” often isn’t to offer some form of argumentative justification. Rather, people say those things to function like barriers to entry: only non-whites allowed.
There are, of course, ethical issues around that kind of response, but this post is about the pragmatics of speech, not its ethics. Still, this post seems to get wrong, as you point out, the actual pragmatics of why people do what is called “epistemic stalling”.