More charitably, the original confusion probably started from interpreting wedrifid’s comment as arguing for status quo, followed by an argument against status quo that would be correct given that assumption.
FWIW I think that is how I understood wedrifid’s comment, though I failed to articulate this when you asked me about my purpose.
Then, it’s incorrect that in context your argument was vacuous, since if one says that 2+2=5, it’s still worth arguing that 2+2=4, however obvious that is. On the other hand, motivated cognition was still probably the cause of interpreting wedrifid’s comment that way.
FWIW I think that is how I understood wedrifid’s comment, though I failed to articulate this when you asked me about my purpose.
Then, it’s incorrect that in context your argument was vacuous, since if one says that 2+2=5, it’s still worth arguing that 2+2=4, however obvious that is. On the other hand, motivated cognition was still probably the cause of interpreting wedrifid’s comment that way.