I agree that “poisoning the well” and “Bulverism” are bad ideas when arguing for or against ideas. If someone wrote a post “Animals are Conscious” then it would be bad form to spend the first section arguing that Yudkowsky is frequently, confidently, egregiously wrong. However, that is not the post that omnizoid wrote, so it is misdirected criticism. Omnizoid’s post is a (failed) attempt at status regulation.
I agree that “poisoning the well” and “Bulverism” are bad ideas when arguing for or against ideas. If someone wrote a post “Animals are Conscious” then it would be bad form to spend the first section arguing that Yudkowsky is frequently, confidently, egregiously wrong. However, that is not the post that omnizoid wrote, so it is misdirected criticism. Omnizoid’s post is a (failed) attempt at status regulation.