Can you be more specific? There are many things you could mean by “difference of degree”. Some of them seem quite bad if true, and some seem perfectly benign.
Like sure, both are nonzero on some scale of contrarianism. But I predict that, for example, separating the world into “zero on that scale” and “nonzero on that scale” is mostly a silly categorization. (Even if the optimal amount on that scale is zero, which I doubt.) If all you mean by “difference of degree” is that they’re both nonzero on that scale, then I think it says very little.
Whereas if you mean, for example, something like… “if you asked mainstream physics PhDs for their thoughts, they’d say “this is a dumb opinion to hold” only slightly more often for the mensa opinions than for the LW opinion”… if you mean something like that, then calling it “only a difference of degree” seems like a significant claim that would reflect badly on LW if it were true. But I don’t think it’s true.
Can you be more specific? There are many things you could mean by “difference of degree”. Some of them seem quite bad if true, and some seem perfectly benign.
Like sure, both are nonzero on some scale of contrarianism. But I predict that, for example, separating the world into “zero on that scale” and “nonzero on that scale” is mostly a silly categorization. (Even if the optimal amount on that scale is zero, which I doubt.) If all you mean by “difference of degree” is that they’re both nonzero on that scale, then I think it says very little.
Whereas if you mean, for example, something like… “if you asked mainstream physics PhDs for their thoughts, they’d say “this is a dumb opinion to hold” only slightly more often for the mensa opinions than for the LW opinion”… if you mean something like that, then calling it “only a difference of degree” seems like a significant claim that would reflect badly on LW if it were true. But I don’t think it’s true.
What I mean by “difference of degree” is “NOT difference of kind”.