I think there’s a difference between analysis and authoritive-sounding statements like “X is not actually a part of you, you are wrong about this”, especially when it comes to personal attributes like selfness, especially in a thread demonstrating the folly of the typical-mind assumption.
Interesting. It was not my intent to sound any more authoritative than typical. Are there particular signals that indicate abnormally authoritarian-sounding statements that I should watch out for? And are there protocols that I should be aware of here that determine who is allowed to sound more or less authoritarian than whom, and under what circumstances?
I should have mentioned this earlier, but I did not downvote you so this is somewhat conjectured. In my opinion it’s not a question of who but of topic—specifically, and this holds in a more general sense, you might want to be cautious when correcting people about beliefs that are part of their self-image. Couch it in terms like “I don’t think”, “I believe”, “in my opinion”, “personally speaking”. That’ll make it sound less like you think you know their minds better than they do.
FWIW, I understood you in the first place to be saying that this was a choice, and it was good to be aware of it as a choice, rather than making authoritarian statements about what choice to make.
I appear to be confused.
Are you implying that subjective self-image is something that we should respect rather than analyze?
I think there’s a difference between analysis and authoritive-sounding statements like “X is not actually a part of you, you are wrong about this”, especially when it comes to personal attributes like selfness, especially in a thread demonstrating the folly of the typical-mind assumption.
Interesting. It was not my intent to sound any more authoritative than typical. Are there particular signals that indicate abnormally authoritarian-sounding statements that I should watch out for? And are there protocols that I should be aware of here that determine who is allowed to sound more or less authoritarian than whom, and under what circumstances?
I should have mentioned this earlier, but I did not downvote you so this is somewhat conjectured. In my opinion it’s not a question of who but of topic—specifically, and this holds in a more general sense, you might want to be cautious when correcting people about beliefs that are part of their self-image. Couch it in terms like “I don’t think”, “I believe”, “in my opinion”, “personally speaking”. That’ll make it sound less like you think you know their minds better than they do.
FWIW, I understood you in the first place to be saying that this was a choice, and it was good to be aware of it as a choice, rather than making authoritarian statements about what choice to make.