I agree that it is often right to speak up loudly in favor of a good thing. “Yay Billionaire Philanthropy” is very different than the double negative “Against Against”.
But I also have a strong policy against speaking up about someone or something I want to get less attention rather than more being Wrong On The Internet. To the extent that I worry/worried my response post here violated that rule. It might well have done so and therefore been a mistake.
Also the thing where we keep on insisting on pretending there’s good faith and good intentions everywhere and taking the arguments at face value and being cautious about bias arguments and not calling people liars or frauds and etc etc? I kind of figured “people who oppose it when those with surplus they don’t need use it to help with things that need help” would be a good place to point out such behaviors and see what happens. Get some valuable data.
heh, I did consider whether to add an extra parenthetical that was “I’m not sure either the original post or this one were actually a good use of time, but it seemed like they probably came out of free energy that Scott and Zvi were just motivated to spend, so, shrug?”, and then I ended up not writing that partly because I noticed that I didn’t fully endorse weighing in myself in the first place and felt awkward something something cognitive dissonance.
Also the thing where we keep on insisting on pretending there’s good faith and good intentions everywhere and taking the arguments at face value and being cautious about bias arguments and not calling people liars or frauds and etc etc?
IMO, this a mix of two things: First, typical mind fallacy (and wishful thinking) that it’s just unlikely that many people are so different from me that they really don’t care at all about things that are pretty foundational in my moral calculus (honesty and truth-seeking). But also, there’s a bit of strategy in ignoring (or at least not directly addressing) that case—even if it’s true that they see only conflict, I can reduce their status by ignoring that element and focusing on things which reinforce my side’s beliefs by making it seem more objectively true and less about the conflict.
In a sense, it’s a sort of meta-conflict-theory: I prefer calm rational discourse, and by engaging in it even when I know it’s not effective for changing some minds or resolving conflicts, I make it a little more respected and useful. I don’t have to change their minds if I can show that they’re neanderthal-level thinkers whose minds aren’t relevant. There’s far more subtlety here than in these few paragraphs, but sometimes ignoring someone’s motives, especially someones unlikely to ever directly converse with or read my thoughts, is more effective than addressing them.
I agree that it is often right to speak up loudly in favor of a good thing. “Yay Billionaire Philanthropy” is very different than the double negative “Against Against”.
But I also have a strong policy against speaking up about someone or something I want to get less attention rather than more being Wrong On The Internet. To the extent that I worry/worried my response post here violated that rule. It might well have done so and therefore been a mistake.
Also the thing where we keep on insisting on pretending there’s good faith and good intentions everywhere and taking the arguments at face value and being cautious about bias arguments and not calling people liars or frauds and etc etc? I kind of figured “people who oppose it when those with surplus they don’t need use it to help with things that need help” would be a good place to point out such behaviors and see what happens. Get some valuable data.
heh, I did consider whether to add an extra parenthetical that was “I’m not sure either the original post or this one were actually a good use of time, but it seemed like they probably came out of free energy that Scott and Zvi were just motivated to spend, so, shrug?”, and then I ended up not writing that partly because I noticed that I didn’t fully endorse weighing in myself in the first place and felt awkward something something cognitive dissonance.
IMO, this a mix of two things: First, typical mind fallacy (and wishful thinking) that it’s just unlikely that many people are so different from me that they really don’t care at all about things that are pretty foundational in my moral calculus (honesty and truth-seeking). But also, there’s a bit of strategy in ignoring (or at least not directly addressing) that case—even if it’s true that they see only conflict, I can reduce their status by ignoring that element and focusing on things which reinforce my side’s beliefs by making it seem more objectively true and less about the conflict.
In a sense, it’s a sort of meta-conflict-theory: I prefer calm rational discourse, and by engaging in it even when I know it’s not effective for changing some minds or resolving conflicts, I make it a little more respected and useful. I don’t have to change their minds if I can show that they’re neanderthal-level thinkers whose minds aren’t relevant. There’s far more subtlety here than in these few paragraphs, but sometimes ignoring someone’s motives, especially someones unlikely to ever directly converse with or read my thoughts, is more effective than addressing them.