I believe that the thing which is making many of your commenters misinterpret the post is that you chose a political example for the dialogue. That gives people the (reasonable, as this is a common move) suspicion that you have a motive of attacking your political enemy while disguising it as rationality advice.
Even if they don’t think that, if they have any sympathies towards the side that you seem to be attacking, they will still feel it necessary to defend that side. To do otherwise would risk granting the implicit notion that the “Uber exploits its drivers” side would have no coherent arguments in general, regardless of whether or not you meant to send that message.
You mentioned that you have personal examples where Anna pointed out to you that your position was incoherently. Something like that would probably have been a better example to use: saying “here’s an example of how I made this mistake” won’t be suspected of having ulterior motives the way that “here’s an example of a mistake made by someone who I might reasonably be suspected to consider a political opponent” will.
Ahhh right, you got me, I was unnecessarily political! It didn’t pattern match to the kind of political arguing that I see in my bubble, but I get why anyone who feels skeptical or unhappy about Uber’s practices won’t be maximally receptive to learning about specificity using this example, and why even people who don’t have an opinion about Uber have expressed feeling “uncomfortable” with the example. Thanks!
At some point I may go back and replace with another example. I’m open to ideas.
I believe that the thing which is making many of your commenters misinterpret the post is that you chose a political example for the dialogue. That gives people the (reasonable, as this is a common move) suspicion that you have a motive of attacking your political enemy while disguising it as rationality advice.
Even if they don’t think that, if they have any sympathies towards the side that you seem to be attacking, they will still feel it necessary to defend that side. To do otherwise would risk granting the implicit notion that the “Uber exploits its drivers” side would have no coherent arguments in general, regardless of whether or not you meant to send that message.
You mentioned that you have personal examples where Anna pointed out to you that your position was incoherently. Something like that would probably have been a better example to use: saying “here’s an example of how I made this mistake” won’t be suspected of having ulterior motives the way that “here’s an example of a mistake made by someone who I might reasonably be suspected to consider a political opponent” will.
Ahhh right, you got me, I was unnecessarily political! It didn’t pattern match to the kind of political arguing that I see in my bubble, but I get why anyone who feels skeptical or unhappy about Uber’s practices won’t be maximally receptive to learning about specificity using this example, and why even people who don’t have an opinion about Uber have expressed feeling “uncomfortable” with the example. Thanks!
At some point I may go back and replace with another example. I’m open to ideas.
Ok I finally made this edit. Wish I did it sooner!