Your response would make sense to me if Jiro had said something like ‘I wonder if some part of Gwern was influenced by a desire to Gish-gallop opponents (among other motivations)’. This is really importantly different, in my mind, from the bald assertion “It’s a Gish Gallop.”
It’s also radically different from a neutral warning to readers, ‘hey, be cautious of updating too much on all these fictional details and authoritative-looking references’. In my book, that sort of claim usually has a way lower evidential bar to pass than speculating on someone’s motives, which in turn has a lower bar to pass than asserting an acquaintance with a virtuous track record has highly adversarial motives. (Without feeling a need to argue for your hypothesis, and without first trying to engage in any sort of object-level discussion about any part of the post.)
Oh, I think the comment I am responding to is quite bad, but I don’t think in terms of pure conceptual content, saying “I wonder if X” and “X” is that different. In either case, downvoting, then asking for more evidence seems like a reasonable thing to do (and I think is better than going up to the meta level and talking about whether the comment was phrased the right way, which I think is generally not super productive).
It’s plausible you are reacting to a different social context than I am. When I responded to the comment, the comment was at −6 karma.
In either case, downvoting, then asking for more evidence seems like a reasonable thing to do
Yep, agreed!
(and I think is better than going up to the meta level and talking about whether the comment was phrased the right way, which I think is generally not super productive).
Your response would make sense to me if Jiro had said something like ‘I wonder if some part of Gwern was influenced by a desire to Gish-gallop opponents (among other motivations)’. This is really importantly different, in my mind, from the bald assertion “It’s a Gish Gallop.”
It’s also radically different from a neutral warning to readers, ‘hey, be cautious of updating too much on all these fictional details and authoritative-looking references’. In my book, that sort of claim usually has a way lower evidential bar to pass than speculating on someone’s motives, which in turn has a lower bar to pass than asserting an acquaintance with a virtuous track record has highly adversarial motives. (Without feeling a need to argue for your hypothesis, and without first trying to engage in any sort of object-level discussion about any part of the post.)
Oh, I think the comment I am responding to is quite bad, but I don’t think in terms of pure conceptual content, saying “I wonder if X” and “X” is that different. In either case, downvoting, then asking for more evidence seems like a reasonable thing to do (and I think is better than going up to the meta level and talking about whether the comment was phrased the right way, which I think is generally not super productive).
It’s plausible you are reacting to a different social context than I am. When I responded to the comment, the comment was at −6 karma.
Yep, agreed!
Agreed.