Apart from implying different subjective preferences to mine when it comes to conversation this claim is actually objectively false as a description of reality.
The ‘taboo!’ demand in this context was itself a borderline (in as much as it isn’t actually the salient feature that needs elaboration or challenge and the meaning should be plain to most non disingenuous readers). But assuming there was any doubt at all about what ‘contrived’ meant in the first place my response would, in fact, help make it clear through illustration what kind of thing ‘contrived’ was being used to represent (which was basically the literal meaning of the word).
Your response indicates that the “Taboo contrived!” move may have had some specific rhetorical intent that you don’t want disrupted. If so, by all means state it. (I am likely to have more sympathy for whatever your actual rejection of decius’s comment is than for your complaint here.)
torture and murder are objectively the most moral things to do in noncontrived circumstances.
In order to address this possibility, I need to know what Decius considers “contrived” and not just what the central example of a contrived circumstance is. In any case, part of my point was to force Decius to think more clearly about under what circumstances are torture and killing justified rather than simply throwing all the examples he knows in the box labeled “contrived”.
However Decius answers, he probably violates the local don’t-discuss-politics norm. By contrast, your coyness makes it appear that you haven’t done so.
In short, it appears to me that you already know Decius’ position well enough to continue the discussion if you wanted to. Your invocation of the taboo-your-words convention appears like it isn’t your true rejection.
That’s not helpful, especially in context.
Apart from implying different subjective preferences to mine when it comes to conversation this claim is actually objectively false as a description of reality.
The ‘taboo!’ demand in this context was itself a borderline (in as much as it isn’t actually the salient feature that needs elaboration or challenge and the meaning should be plain to most non disingenuous readers). But assuming there was any doubt at all about what ‘contrived’ meant in the first place my response would, in fact, help make it clear through illustration what kind of thing ‘contrived’ was being used to represent (which was basically the literal meaning of the word).
Your response indicates that the “Taboo contrived!” move may have had some specific rhetorical intent that you don’t want disrupted. If so, by all means state it. (I am likely to have more sympathy for whatever your actual rejection of decius’s comment is than for your complaint here.)
Decius considered the possibility that
In order to address this possibility, I need to know what Decius considers “contrived” and not just what the central example of a contrived circumstance is. In any case, part of my point was to force Decius to think more clearly about under what circumstances are torture and killing justified rather than simply throwing all the examples he knows in the box labeled “contrived”.
However Decius answers, he probably violates the local don’t-discuss-politics norm. By contrast, your coyness makes it appear that you haven’t done so.
In short, it appears to me that you already know Decius’ position well enough to continue the discussion if you wanted to. Your invocation of the taboo-your-words convention appears like it isn’t your true rejection.