My guess is extended pattern-matching on Eugine Nier’s typical post content, along with a huge helping of annoyance with the excluded middle.
“This is a reductio ad absurdum of Mill’s argument”
“you honestly favor treating 5-year olds as legal adults”.
Are these honestly the only two possible readings of the original post? If not, is it more likely—based on past history of all parties—to assume that Eugine Nier honestly could not conceive of a third option, or merely that a rhetorical tactic was being employed to make their opponent look bad?
Based on what is most likely occurring (evaluated, of course, differently by each person reading), is this post a flower or a weed?
Are these honestly the only two possible readings of the original post? If not, is it more likely—based on past history of all parties—to assume that Eugine Nier honestly could not conceive of a third option, or merely that a rhetorical tactic was being employed to make their opponent look bad?
Well, based to Multiheaded’s previous posts I wouldn’t be too surprised if he favored treating 5-year olds as legal adults. It’s possible he wants us to notice the difference between women and children and see why Mill’s argument doesn’t apply in the later case, but I find this unlikely given Multiheaded’s commenting history. In any case, this is the logical conclusion of his argument as stated, I was merely pointing this out. Of course, If you regard pointing out the implications of someone else’s argument as a dishonest rhetorical tactic, I see why you’d object.
Oh, hello! I wondered why my karma was starting to go down again. Welcome back!
I am downvoting this and all future complaining about Eugine that is not provoked by immediate context. Too many (ie. about a third) of your comments (and even posts) are attempts to shame people who chose to downvote you. In addition, instances like this one that are snide and sarcastic are particularly distasteful.
I incidentally suggest that giving Eugine just cause (as well as additional emotional incentive) to downvote you is unlikely to be the optimal strategy for reducing the number of downvotes you receive.
On a more empathetic note I know that the task of maintaining the moral high ground and mobilizing the tribe to take action to change the behaviour of a rival is a delicate and difficult one and often a cause for frustration and even disillusionment. A possibility you may consider is that you could accept the minor status hit for excessive complaining but take great care to make sure that each individual complaint is as graceful and inoffensive to third parties (such as myself) as possible. If you resist the urge to insert those oh so tempting additional barbs then you will likely find that you have far more leeway in terms of how much complaining people will accept from you and are more likely to receive the support of said third parties’ egalitarian instincts.
Note: The preceding paragraph is purely instrumental advice and should not be interpreted as normative endorsement (or dis-endorsement) of that particular “Grey-Arts” strategy. (But I would at least give unqualified normative endorsement of replacing “complaining + bitchiness” with “complaining + tact” in most cases.)
nod unfortunately, I am terrible at these sorts of plays. Thank you for your criticism, and I’ll attempt to behave more gracefully in the future.
EDIT: I’m going to go ahead and trigger your downvotes, now, because reviewing the situation, I feel like I need to speak in my own defense.
I consistently lose fourty to fifty karma over the course of a few minutes, once every few days. Posts which have no possible reason why someone would downvote them get downvoted. And I do not, as you put it, “shame people who chose to downvote me”. I mostly ask for an explanation why I got downvoted, so that I can improve. The ONLY time I have explicitly tried to shame someone who downvoted me was Eugine, and only after spending a very long time examining the situation and coming to the conclusion (p > 0.95) that Eugine was downvoting EVERYTHING I say, just because.
If you feel that that deserves further retributive downvoting, you are free to perform it to your heart’s content; I am powerless to stop you.
My guess is extended pattern-matching on Eugine Nier’s typical post content, along with a huge helping of annoyance with the excluded middle.
“This is a reductio ad absurdum of Mill’s argument”
“you honestly favor treating 5-year olds as legal adults”.
Are these honestly the only two possible readings of the original post? If not, is it more likely—based on past history of all parties—to assume that Eugine Nier honestly could not conceive of a third option, or merely that a rhetorical tactic was being employed to make their opponent look bad?
Based on what is most likely occurring (evaluated, of course, differently by each person reading), is this post a flower or a weed?
Then you tend the garden.
Well, based to Multiheaded’s previous posts I wouldn’t be too surprised if he favored treating 5-year olds as legal adults. It’s possible he wants us to notice the difference between women and children and see why Mill’s argument doesn’t apply in the later case, but I find this unlikely given Multiheaded’s commenting history. In any case, this is the logical conclusion of his argument as stated, I was merely pointing this out. Of course, If you regard pointing out the implications of someone else’s argument as a dishonest rhetorical tactic, I see why you’d object.
Oh, hello! I wondered why my karma was starting to go down again. Welcome back!
I am downvoting this and all future complaining about Eugine that is not provoked by immediate context. Too many (ie. about a third) of your comments (and even posts) are attempts to shame people who chose to downvote you. In addition, instances like this one that are snide and sarcastic are particularly distasteful.
I incidentally suggest that giving Eugine just cause (as well as additional emotional incentive) to downvote you is unlikely to be the optimal strategy for reducing the number of downvotes you receive.
On a more empathetic note I know that the task of maintaining the moral high ground and mobilizing the tribe to take action to change the behaviour of a rival is a delicate and difficult one and often a cause for frustration and even disillusionment. A possibility you may consider is that you could accept the minor status hit for excessive complaining but take great care to make sure that each individual complaint is as graceful and inoffensive to third parties (such as myself) as possible. If you resist the urge to insert those oh so tempting additional barbs then you will likely find that you have far more leeway in terms of how much complaining people will accept from you and are more likely to receive the support of said third parties’ egalitarian instincts.
Note: The preceding paragraph is purely instrumental advice and should not be interpreted as normative endorsement (or dis-endorsement) of that particular “Grey-Arts” strategy. (But I would at least give unqualified normative endorsement of replacing “complaining + bitchiness” with “complaining + tact” in most cases.)
nod unfortunately, I am terrible at these sorts of plays. Thank you for your criticism, and I’ll attempt to behave more gracefully in the future.
EDIT: I’m going to go ahead and trigger your downvotes, now, because reviewing the situation, I feel like I need to speak in my own defense.
I consistently lose fourty to fifty karma over the course of a few minutes, once every few days. Posts which have no possible reason why someone would downvote them get downvoted. And I do not, as you put it, “shame people who chose to downvote me”. I mostly ask for an explanation why I got downvoted, so that I can improve. The ONLY time I have explicitly tried to shame someone who downvoted me was Eugine, and only after spending a very long time examining the situation and coming to the conclusion (p > 0.95) that Eugine was downvoting EVERYTHING I say, just because.
If you feel that that deserves further retributive downvoting, you are free to perform it to your heart’s content; I am powerless to stop you.
That sounds overconfident.