This seems like a fair response in isolation; if the only thing were paraphrasing Duncan’s suggestion as forming a ghetto, that seems plausibly acceptable. In particular, my understanding is that some school cafeterias are entirely peanut-free (including barring children from bringing products containing peanuts from home) in order to make the environment more safe for children with peanut allergies; a proposal to move from that environment to one in which there is simply a peanut-free section of the cafeteria could be said to be isolating those students with allergies. Calling that ghettoizing those children might be extreme (because of the difference in scale), but would be correct about the direction of the change (especially since it is ‘for their protection,’ which was originally true of many of the Jewish ghettos in Europe).
It seems to me like the primary question then is something like: “is enough of the original claim maintained that this summary seems fair, at least to an outside observer?” (The original author agreeing is probably too high a standard, as a summary that’s harsh but fair is unlikely to be acknowledged as fair.) A paraphrase that loses too much in the way of nuance, or which ends up being too hostile or uncharitable, seems like it should call for some sort of criticism or correction. It’s easiest to settle claims about whether or not direct quotes are accurate, but it’s also important to be tracking whether summaries or interpretations are fair and sensible.
Furthermore, moderation often involves noticing patterns of behavior and responding to them as a whole, using particular pieces of behavior as examples and evidence rather than independent cases, so that a long sequences of small pieces of slack doesn’t result in large amounts of unaccountability. In the context of the whole conversation, it seems difficult to separate the question of whether or not this paraphrase is fair or accurate from the question of whether or not a picture is being painted of Duncan as proto-Nazi in ways that are epistemically unsound. (That is, the Litany of Tarski applies here; if Duncan is actually a proto-Nazi, I desire to believe it, and if not, I want to not believe it, and that relies on having epistemic machinery that reliably points towards the truth.)
I was specifically objecting to the details of Raemon’s framing. I agree that in the context of the other things I said I should have been much more careful about the term “ghetto.” I strongly agree that moderators should attend to things like this. Your explanation basically makes sense to me.
I’m very unhappy that this ended up in a place where “is Duncan a proto-Nazi?” is a plausible framing of the question. I’m going to put quite a bit of thought to whether there was a way to object to this clearly and vividly, in a way that didn’t obscure the underlying threat model, without accidentally making it about Duncan personally.
One important thing I notice, that I hadn’t said, and I think would have been really helpful to figure-out-and-then-say-much-earlier:
If you find yourself wanting to communicate a concept that feels likely to get misinterpreted or escalate tensions in the conversation, I’d be very enthusiastic, both as a mod and as a person who knows Ben and thinks he’s trying to do and say important, nuanced things, to try to help do that. (esp if we hash out some thoughts privately before you post publicly)
This is easier the earlier it is in the conversation. I think it’d have been better if we reached out in that frame about your initial comment here, and it’d have been better still if you’d noticed as you were writing the comment that it was the sort of thing likely to get misinterpreted, and (if we had an easy way to do so), reach out to us about how to approach the conversation.
i.e. I think this sort of conversation requires a lot more interpretive labor than normal, but I’m happy to help that. (With limited bandwidth I can’t do this all the time, but it seems like a good approach insofar as we can, and worth prioritizing)
Yeah, I think there was something off about my framing, especially for a comment I was tagging as “high confidence.” I basically endorse Vaniver’s take here, and I think a more accurate and fair thing I would have said was:
1) I have strong sense, that I am quite confident is pointing at a real, important thing, that the ghetto comment was the sort of thing that reliably leads to a deteriorating discussion (and that this should be relatively common knowledge)
2) I had a moderate confidence that the shape-of-the-reason was close to the reason I gave (but, it did depend on context with other things), and I should have been some combination of “express less explicit confidence that I’m getting the details right” and “maybe orient more curiously about what some details/nuances were.”
This seems like a fair response in isolation; if the only thing were paraphrasing Duncan’s suggestion as forming a ghetto, that seems plausibly acceptable. In particular, my understanding is that some school cafeterias are entirely peanut-free (including barring children from bringing products containing peanuts from home) in order to make the environment more safe for children with peanut allergies; a proposal to move from that environment to one in which there is simply a peanut-free section of the cafeteria could be said to be isolating those students with allergies. Calling that ghettoizing those children might be extreme (because of the difference in scale), but would be correct about the direction of the change (especially since it is ‘for their protection,’ which was originally true of many of the Jewish ghettos in Europe).
It seems to me like the primary question then is something like: “is enough of the original claim maintained that this summary seems fair, at least to an outside observer?” (The original author agreeing is probably too high a standard, as a summary that’s harsh but fair is unlikely to be acknowledged as fair.) A paraphrase that loses too much in the way of nuance, or which ends up being too hostile or uncharitable, seems like it should call for some sort of criticism or correction. It’s easiest to settle claims about whether or not direct quotes are accurate, but it’s also important to be tracking whether summaries or interpretations are fair and sensible.
Furthermore, moderation often involves noticing patterns of behavior and responding to them as a whole, using particular pieces of behavior as examples and evidence rather than independent cases, so that a long sequences of small pieces of slack doesn’t result in large amounts of unaccountability. In the context of the whole conversation, it seems difficult to separate the question of whether or not this paraphrase is fair or accurate from the question of whether or not a picture is being painted of Duncan as proto-Nazi in ways that are epistemically unsound. (That is, the Litany of Tarski applies here; if Duncan is actually a proto-Nazi, I desire to believe it, and if not, I want to not believe it, and that relies on having epistemic machinery that reliably points towards the truth.)
I was specifically objecting to the details of Raemon’s framing. I agree that in the context of the other things I said I should have been much more careful about the term “ghetto.” I strongly agree that moderators should attend to things like this. Your explanation basically makes sense to me.
I’m very unhappy that this ended up in a place where “is Duncan a proto-Nazi?” is a plausible framing of the question. I’m going to put quite a bit of thought to whether there was a way to object to this clearly and vividly, in a way that didn’t obscure the underlying threat model, without accidentally making it about Duncan personally.
[note: Somewhat off the cuff]
One important thing I notice, that I hadn’t said, and I think would have been really helpful to figure-out-and-then-say-much-earlier:
If you find yourself wanting to communicate a concept that feels likely to get misinterpreted or escalate tensions in the conversation, I’d be very enthusiastic, both as a mod and as a person who knows Ben and thinks he’s trying to do and say important, nuanced things, to try to help do that. (esp if we hash out some thoughts privately before you post publicly)
This is easier the earlier it is in the conversation. I think it’d have been better if we reached out in that frame about your initial comment here, and it’d have been better still if you’d noticed as you were writing the comment that it was the sort of thing likely to get misinterpreted, and (if we had an easy way to do so), reach out to us about how to approach the conversation.
i.e. I think this sort of conversation requires a lot more interpretive labor than normal, but I’m happy to help that. (With limited bandwidth I can’t do this all the time, but it seems like a good approach insofar as we can, and worth prioritizing)
Thanks, good to have this offer :)
Yeah, I think there was something off about my framing, especially for a comment I was tagging as “high confidence.” I basically endorse Vaniver’s take here, and I think a more accurate and fair thing I would have said was:
1) I have strong sense, that I am quite confident is pointing at a real, important thing, that the ghetto comment was the sort of thing that reliably leads to a deteriorating discussion (and that this should be relatively common knowledge)
2) I had a moderate confidence that the shape-of-the-reason was close to the reason I gave (but, it did depend on context with other things), and I should have been some combination of “express less explicit confidence that I’m getting the details right” and “maybe orient more curiously about what some details/nuances were.”