I appreciate this post a lot. In particular, I think it’s cool that you establish a meta-frame, or at least class of frames. Also, I’ve had debates that definitely have had reachability mismatches in the past and I hope that that I’ll be able to just link to this post in the future.
The most frequent debate mismatch I have is on a subject you mention: climate change. I generally take the stance of Clara: the way I view it, it’s a coordination problem, and individual action, no matter how reachable, I model as having completely unsubstantial effect. In some sense, one could claim that all arguments should only be about the nature of actions that either individual involved in the conversation could actually take. On the other hand (and the stance I take in this scenario), communication can be used as a signal to establish consensus on the actions that others should take. I expect that this sort of mismatch could be the cause reachability mismatches in general. One participant can prioritize the personal relevance of the conversation while another could try to prioritize arguments for actions that have the most effect, whether or not anyone can actually make them happen. Another way to view this problem is “working backwards” from the problem or “working forwards” from the actions we can take.
I appreciate this post a lot. In particular, I think it’s cool that you establish a meta-frame, or at least class of frames. Also, I’ve had debates that definitely have had reachability mismatches in the past and I hope that that I’ll be able to just link to this post in the future.
The most frequent debate mismatch I have is on a subject you mention: climate change. I generally take the stance of Clara: the way I view it, it’s a coordination problem, and individual action, no matter how reachable, I model as having completely unsubstantial effect. In some sense, one could claim that all arguments should only be about the nature of actions that either individual involved in the conversation could actually take. On the other hand (and the stance I take in this scenario), communication can be used as a signal to establish consensus on the actions that others should take. I expect that this sort of mismatch could be the cause reachability mismatches in general. One participant can prioritize the personal relevance of the conversation while another could try to prioritize arguments for actions that have the most effect, whether or not anyone can actually make them happen. Another way to view this problem is “working backwards” from the problem or “working forwards” from the actions we can take.