The 9-karma disagree-vote is mine. (Surprise!) I thought about writing a comment, and then thought, “Nah, I don’t feel like getting involved with this one; I’ll just leave a quick disagree-vote”, but if you’re actively soliciting, I’ll write the comment.
I’m wary of the consequences of trying to institute social norms to protect people from subjective emotional damage, because I think “the cure is worse than the disease.” I’d rather develop a thick skin and take responsibility for my own emotions (even though it hurts when some people are mean), because I fear that the alternative is (speaking uncharitably) a dystopia of psychological warfare masquerading as kindness in which people compete to shut down the expression of perspectives they don’t like by motivatedly getting (subjectively sincerely) offended.
Technically, I don’t disagree with “people should know what they’re getting into” being a desirable goal (all other things being equal), but I think it should be applied symmetrically, and it makes sense for me to strong-disagree-vote a comment that I don’t think is applying it symmetrically: it’s not fair if “fighty” people need to to make lengthy disclaimers about how their bluntness might hurt someone’s feelings (which is true), but “cooperative” people don’t need to make lengthy disclaimers about how their tone-policing might silence someone’s perspective (which is also true).
I don’t know Nate very well. There was an incident on Twitter and Less Wrong the other year where I got offended at how glib and smug he was being, despite how wrong he was about the philosophy of dolphins. But in retrospect, I think I was wrong to get offended. (I got downvoted to oblivion, and I deserved it.) I wish I had kept my cool—not because I personally approve of the communication style Nate was using, but because I think it was bad for my soul and the world to let myself get distracted by mere style when I could have shrugged it off and stayed focused on the substance.
The 9-karma disagree-vote is mine. (Surprise!) I thought about writing a comment, and then thought, “Nah, I don’t feel like getting involved with this one; I’ll just leave a quick disagree-vote”, but if you’re actively soliciting, I’ll write the comment.
I’m wary of the consequences of trying to institute social norms to protect people from subjective emotional damage, because I think “the cure is worse than the disease.” I’d rather develop a thick skin and take responsibility for my own emotions (even though it hurts when some people are mean), because I fear that the alternative is (speaking uncharitably) a dystopia of psychological warfare masquerading as kindness in which people compete to shut down the expression of perspectives they don’t like by motivatedly getting (subjectively sincerely) offended.
Technically, I don’t disagree with “people should know what they’re getting into” being a desirable goal (all other things being equal), but I think it should be applied symmetrically, and it makes sense for me to strong-disagree-vote a comment that I don’t think is applying it symmetrically: it’s not fair if “fighty” people need to to make lengthy disclaimers about how their bluntness might hurt someone’s feelings (which is true), but “cooperative” people don’t need to make lengthy disclaimers about how their tone-policing might silence someone’s perspective (which is also true).
I don’t know Nate very well. There was an incident on Twitter and Less Wrong the other year where I got offended at how glib and smug he was being, despite how wrong he was about the philosophy of dolphins. But in retrospect, I think I was wrong to get offended. (I got downvoted to oblivion, and I deserved it.) I wish I had kept my cool—not because I personally approve of the communication style Nate was using, but because I think it was bad for my soul and the world to let myself get distracted by mere style when I could have shrugged it off and stayed focused on the substance.