To be able to laugh at yourself and criticism of yourself, is a mark of mental health. I am happy this community still has it. Especially in the context of discussing cultishness, suprresion of criticism, mental health, etc.
Yeah, but I don’t see how you get from there to “therefore, we should invite/promote/incentivize unfair criticism”. And we definitely don’t do this in general, so there has to be something special about vV_Vv’s comment. I guess it’s probably the humor that I’m honestly not seeing in this case. The comment just seems straight-forwardly spiteful to me.
Also, there is a chance that my perception is wrong. I made my decision unconsciously; my System 1 decided so for reasons not completely transparent to me, and then it took some effort to also see it from the opposite perspective. (I suppose the line “now, some snark” is something that an actually hostile person would not write; they would just do it, without labeling it as such.)
That’s actually very interesting. Up until this reply I didn’t realize that you would go as far as to call it counter-signaling, implying that the intent of the comment wasn’t to be mean (?). I assumed that your model was “the person was mean but also funny, and that makes it ok”. (When you said it’s important to be able to laugh at oneself, did you mean to say that vV_Vv’s comment was doing that? That doesn’t seem right given that they’re not really a part of the community.)
I tend to think that I have unusually good sensors for whether someone did or didn’t intend to be mean. (I think it’s related to having status-regulating emotions.) Even after rereading the comment, I still get fairly strong “this person was trying to be mean” vibes.
In general, I think being easily offended correlates with not being successful in life, as does feeling status-regulating emotions. I have this pet theory that both are underrepresented among rationalists, which would make me an extreme exception. So maybe what was going on is that most people read it and misinterpreted it as counter-signaling, whereas a few unlucky easily-offended people like me interpreted it correctly. But it’s also possible that I’m totally wrong.
Hah, seems like I was wrong after all! Wow, I am a little disappointed—not for being wrong, but for the comment not being as funny as I believed it was. :( Because people should sometimes make jokes in situations like this, in my opinion.
Yeah, but I don’t see how you get from there to “therefore, we should invite/promote/incentivize unfair criticism”. And we definitely don’t do this in general, so there has to be something special about vV_Vv’s comment. I guess it’s probably the humor that I’m honestly not seeing in this case. The comment just seems straight-forwardly spiteful to me.
Yes, humor makes the difference between “unfair” and “hyperbolic”. (Or the hyperbole makes the humor. Uhhh… explaining humor isn’t my forte.)
However, countersignaling is risky, and your reaction is an evidence for that.
Also, there is a chance that my perception is wrong. I made my decision unconsciously; my System 1 decided so for reasons not completely transparent to me, and then it took some effort to also see it from the opposite perspective. (I suppose the line “now, some snark” is something that an actually hostile person would not write; they would just do it, without labeling it as such.)
That’s actually very interesting. Up until this reply I didn’t realize that you would go as far as to call it counter-signaling, implying that the intent of the comment wasn’t to be mean (?). I assumed that your model was “the person was mean but also funny, and that makes it ok”. (When you said it’s important to be able to laugh at oneself, did you mean to say that vV_Vv’s comment was doing that? That doesn’t seem right given that they’re not really a part of the community.)
I tend to think that I have unusually good sensors for whether someone did or didn’t intend to be mean. (I think it’s related to having status-regulating emotions.) Even after rereading the comment, I still get fairly strong “this person was trying to be mean” vibes.
In general, I think being easily offended correlates with not being successful in life, as does feeling status-regulating emotions. I have this pet theory that both are underrepresented among rationalists, which would make me an extreme exception. So maybe what was going on is that most people read it and misinterpreted it as counter-signaling, whereas a few unlucky easily-offended people like me interpreted it correctly. But it’s also possible that I’m totally wrong.
Hah, seems like I was wrong after all! Wow, I am a little disappointed—not for being wrong, but for the comment not being as funny as I believed it was. :( Because people should sometimes make jokes in situations like this, in my opinion.