My feeling is that a lot of contrarians get “pulled into” a more contrarian view. I have noticed myself in discussions propose a (specific, technical point correcting a detail of a particular model). Then, when I talk to people about it I feel like they are trying to pull me towards the simpler position (all those idiots are wrong, its completely different from that). This happens with things like “ah, so you mean...”, which is very direct. But also through a much more subtle process, where I talk to many people, and most of them go away thinking “Ok, specific technical correction on a topic I don’t care about that much.” and most of them never talk or think about it again. But the people who get the exaggerated idea are more likely to remember.
Nice post. Gets at something real.
My feeling is that a lot of contrarians get “pulled into” a more contrarian view. I have noticed myself in discussions propose a (specific, technical point correcting a detail of a particular model). Then, when I talk to people about it I feel like they are trying to pull me towards the simpler position (all those idiots are wrong, its completely different from that). This happens with things like “ah, so you mean...”, which is very direct. But also through a much more subtle process, where I talk to many people, and most of them go away thinking “Ok, specific technical correction on a topic I don’t care about that much.” and most of them never talk or think about it again. But the people who get the exaggerated idea are more likely to remember.