-2 is certainly at least two standard deviations down for my comments (excluding the “whine” followup, which I was fully aware was going to be downvoted and posted anyway), so I considered it a clear enough signal to be worthy of comment. [Edit: on reconsidering, I realize that I meant below 2.5th percentile, not really 2 standard deviations down. Variance is large, so 2 SD down would have to be almost as far down as one of my best comments is up.]
Hypocrisy? I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
Fair enough.
Good points about generalizing and about the meaning of “groupthink”. I meant “epistemic closure”, not “groupthink”, and that was sloppy.
“anything other”: I still think it was a reasonable hypothesis (though your use of the word “conspiracy” is an unfair caricature; I was fully aware that it was just two people, and never said otherwise); but if I read you as saying that I should have thought “anything other” as well as this hypothesis, then your point is telling. I did fail to consider any specific alternative hypotheses (mentioning them only generally at the end), and thus deserved the −4 I got for my whine.
Point-by-point response:
Thank you. Edited to clarify the meaning.
-2 is certainly at least two standard deviations down for my comments (excluding the “whine” followup, which I was fully aware was going to be downvoted and posted anyway), so I considered it a clear enough signal to be worthy of comment. [Edit: on reconsidering, I realize that I meant below 2.5th percentile, not really 2 standard deviations down. Variance is large, so 2 SD down would have to be almost as far down as one of my best comments is up.]
Hypocrisy? I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
Fair enough.
Good points about generalizing and about the meaning of “groupthink”. I meant “epistemic closure”, not “groupthink”, and that was sloppy.
“anything other”: I still think it was a reasonable hypothesis (though your use of the word “conspiracy” is an unfair caricature; I was fully aware that it was just two people, and never said otherwise); but if I read you as saying that I should have thought “anything other” as well as this hypothesis, then your point is telling. I did fail to consider any specific alternative hypotheses (mentioning them only generally at the end), and thus deserved the −4 I got for my whine.