There is a lot going on in the dynamics of this situation that relates to and threatens virtues and ideals that I value and—at least on lesswrong where it is usually safe to do so—hold sacred. If I wanted to protect those ideals effectively I would of course have to go ahead and write my own post but for me writing eloquent posts takes a lot of time and initiative.
I would like to better understand why you and others are reacting so strongly to both Todd’s post and JGWeissman’s. I think I may have said this before, but I really wish you’d write more posts relative to comments so you can explain your ideas more systematically.
The misleading usage of out of context quotes. I tend to recall all those who use this particular interpersonal tactic, whether against myself or others. Call it a pet peeve.
Have you considered that they may not be deliberately quoting you misleadingly, but genuinely misunderstood your comments? In other words communicating is hard (inferential distance, etc) and it may be partly your fault that you’re being misleadingly quoted so often? I think I’ve very rarely if ever been misleadingly quoted out of context, and attribute that at least in part to wording my comments and posts very carefully and often providing caveats against possible misunderstandings.
I would like to better understand why you and others are reacting so strongly to both Todd’s post and JGWeissman’s. I think I may have said this before, but I really wish you’d write more posts relative to comments so you can explain your ideas more systematically.
Have you considered that they may not be deliberately quoting you misleadingly, but genuinely misunderstood your comments? In other words communicating is hard (inferential distance, etc) and it may be partly your fault that you’re being misleadingly quoted so often? I think I’ve very rarely if ever been misleadingly quoted out of context, and attribute that at least in part to wording my comments and posts very carefully and often providing caveats against possible misunderstandings.