By my reasoning (or more accurately, by the reasoning of my inner Death Eater), if someone is serially downvoting me as a retaliation tactic, then that means I’ve done something wrong (or more accurately, that I’m BEING something wrong).
No one post you’ve said (regardless of how bad it could’ve been) would ever justify downvoting everything in retaliation, because that’s not what the downvote is meant to be used for. I can understand why you, as a rationalist, place doubt upon yourself by default, but there’s no need to defend your (theoretical) aggressor. Well-kept gardens die by pacifism, some die by moderation.
Yes, but what I’m saying is, I think that the retaliatory downvoting is an indication that I’m one of the weeds. (I’m used to this from other fora, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that I’m a weed here, too.)
I understand what you’re saying, and I can’t falsify your (claimed) experiences from other fora. Nonetheless, even if you are a “weed”, staying on lesswrong has to benefit someone. Law of bivalence: either you’re irrational or you’re rational. If you’re rational, others will benefit from your points you’ll make. If you’re irrational, you’ll benefit from the rational points others make. Either way, rationality increases. Q.E.D. (please no constructionism objections)
Oh no, I wasn’t referring to your earlier objections. I was just pre-empting the rejection of the law of bivalence that some bystander may invoke. On a semi-interesting side note, these recent comments haven’t been downvoted, so your aggressor has either stopped or temporarily left (hopefully the latter).
Well, one thing I learned from my childhood—the more viciously self-deprecating and self-abusive I can be, the more likely it is that my aggressors will leave me alone and just watch.
Ah, nice bit of wisdom there. You evade all of your abusers except for one: yourself. Ironically we’ve worked our way back to the topic of the article, because that can be useful as a signal; “don’t bother dominating me, I already have that covered”.
By my reasoning (or more accurately, by the reasoning of my inner Death Eater), if someone is serially downvoting me as a retaliation tactic, then that means I’ve done something wrong (or more accurately, that I’m BEING something wrong).
No one post you’ve said (regardless of how bad it could’ve been) would ever justify downvoting everything in retaliation, because that’s not what the downvote is meant to be used for. I can understand why you, as a rationalist, place doubt upon yourself by default, but there’s no need to defend your (theoretical) aggressor. Well-kept gardens die by pacifism, some die by moderation.
Yes, but what I’m saying is, I think that the retaliatory downvoting is an indication that I’m one of the weeds. (I’m used to this from other fora, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that I’m a weed here, too.)
I understand what you’re saying, and I can’t falsify your (claimed) experiences from other fora. Nonetheless, even if you are a “weed”, staying on lesswrong has to benefit someone. Law of bivalence: either you’re irrational or you’re rational. If you’re rational, others will benefit from your points you’ll make. If you’re irrational, you’ll benefit from the rational points others make. Either way, rationality increases. Q.E.D. (please no constructionism objections)
My objections aren’t constructionist; like I said, I have an inner Death-Eater that keeps screaming “Weaklings should suffer!”.
Oh no, I wasn’t referring to your earlier objections. I was just pre-empting the rejection of the law of bivalence that some bystander may invoke. On a semi-interesting side note, these recent comments haven’t been downvoted, so your aggressor has either stopped or temporarily left (hopefully the latter).
Well, one thing I learned from my childhood—the more viciously self-deprecating and self-abusive I can be, the more likely it is that my aggressors will leave me alone and just watch.
Ah, nice bit of wisdom there. You evade all of your abusers except for one: yourself. Ironically we’ve worked our way back to the topic of the article, because that can be useful as a signal; “don’t bother dominating me, I already have that covered”.
That was partially deliberate; I derive wry amusement from taking things meta and then bringing them back around.