To use the virus metaphor again, this is like a security expert who finds exploits and reports them so they can be fixed. (Or, more closely analogous to this video, working with an individual and delivering an active but harmless virus to their computer so they will become aware of and concerned about the potential for real harm.) The grey area, somehow using invalid but persuasive arguments against people’s actual biases, is like my previous example making a virus that patches the very holes it uses to get in. Using the Dark Arts is like using those exploits to install things on people’s computers on the basis that you’re only using it to install really good software that people ought to have anyway.
So, showing someone by demonstration how a particular thought pattern serves them poorly is not what I’m talking about. That’s a good thing. (I was going to say it’s “not the Dark Arts”, but so we don’t get into arguing about the definition, I’ll just say that this is an example of something I support, while I think I’ve given enough examples of the sort of thing that I don’t support for the distinction to be clear. It is indeed pretty much what Bongo is saying. My point right now is that the two concepts are different enough that we shouldn’t be referring to them with the same term, especially a connotation-heavy one like “Dark Arts”.)
To use the virus metaphor again, this is like a security expert who finds exploits and reports them so they can be fixed. (Or, more closely analogous to this video, working with an individual and delivering an active but harmless virus to their computer so they will become aware of and concerned about the potential for real harm.) The grey area, somehow using invalid but persuasive arguments against people’s actual biases, is like my previous example making a virus that patches the very holes it uses to get in. Using the Dark Arts is like using those exploits to install things on people’s computers on the basis that you’re only using it to install really good software that people ought to have anyway.
So, showing someone by demonstration how a particular thought pattern serves them poorly is not what I’m talking about. That’s a good thing. (I was going to say it’s “not the Dark Arts”, but so we don’t get into arguing about the definition, I’ll just say that this is an example of something I support, while I think I’ve given enough examples of the sort of thing that I don’t support for the distinction to be clear. It is indeed pretty much what Bongo is saying. My point right now is that the two concepts are different enough that we shouldn’t be referring to them with the same term, especially a connotation-heavy one like “Dark Arts”.)