To be clear, I would approve more of a comment that made the comparison overtly[0], rather than one that made it in a subtle way that was harder to notice or that people missed (I did not realize what you were referring to until I tried to puzzle at why boaz had gotten so upset!). I think it is not healthy for people to only realize later that they were compared to Nazis. And I think it fair for them to consider that an underhanded way to cause them social punishment, to do it in a way that was hard to directly respond to. I believe it’s healthier for attacks[1] to be open and clear.
[0] To be clear, there may still be good reasons to not throw in such a jab at this point in the conversation, but my main point is that doing it with subtlety makes it worse, not better, because it also feels sneaky.
[1] “Attacks”, a word which here means “statements that declare someone has a deeply rotten character or whose behavior has violated an important norm, in a way that if widely believed will cause people to punish them”.
(I don’t mean to derail this thread with discussion of discussion norms. Perhaps if we build that “move discourse elsewhere button” that can later be applied back to this thread.)
I agree with your middle paragraph.
To be clear, I would approve more of a comment that made the comparison overtly[0], rather than one that made it in a subtle way that was harder to notice or that people missed (I did not realize what you were referring to until I tried to puzzle at why boaz had gotten so upset!). I think it is not healthy for people to only realize later that they were compared to Nazis. And I think it fair for them to consider that an underhanded way to cause them social punishment, to do it in a way that was hard to directly respond to. I believe it’s healthier for attacks[1] to be open and clear.
[0] To be clear, there may still be good reasons to not throw in such a jab at this point in the conversation, but my main point is that doing it with subtlety makes it worse, not better, because it also feels sneaky.
[1] “Attacks”, a word which here means “statements that declare someone has a deeply rotten character or whose behavior has violated an important norm, in a way that if widely believed will cause people to punish them”.
(I don’t mean to derail this thread with discussion of discussion norms. Perhaps if we build that “move discourse elsewhere button” that can later be applied back to this thread.)