Well, I suppose it’s an improvement that you’ve identified what you’re arguing against.
Unfortunately the statements you disagree with don’t much resemble what I said. Specifically:
The argument you made was that copy-and-destroy is not bad because a world where
that is done is not worse than our own.
I did not compare one world to another.
Pointing out that your definition of something, like harm, is shared by few people is not
argumentum ad populum, it’s pointing out that you are trying to sound like you’re talking about
something people care about but you’re really not.
I did not define “harm”.
The disconnect between what I said and what you heard is big enough that saying more doesn’t seem likely to make things better.
The intent to make a website for the purpose of fostering rational conversation is good, and this one is the best I know, but it’s still so cringe-inducing that I ignore it for months at a time. This dialogue was typical. There has to be a better way but I don’t know what it is.
you should be able to describe the important way in which this hypothetical world where copy-and-destroy is useful is different from our own.
(I suppose you could quibble that you didn’t say it was not worse, but “not different” is a subset of “not worse”; you certainly did compare one world to another.)
Well, I suppose it’s an improvement that you’ve identified what you’re arguing against.
Unfortunately the statements you disagree with don’t much resemble what I said. Specifically:
I did not compare one world to another.
I did not define “harm”.
The disconnect between what I said and what you heard is big enough that saying more doesn’t seem likely to make things better.
The intent to make a website for the purpose of fostering rational conversation is good, and this one is the best I know, but it’s still so cringe-inducing that I ignore it for months at a time. This dialogue was typical. There has to be a better way but I don’t know what it is.
Um.
(I suppose you could quibble that you didn’t say it was not worse, but “not different” is a subset of “not worse”; you certainly did compare one world to another.)