I can’t tell whether you mean something much more trivial by ‘dark arts’ than I do, or whether you really think even PR on this small a scale is dangerously corrosive of our core epistemic standards. (Or is otherwise nefarious.)
As a toy example, suppose I don’t usually wear suits, but I decide to wear a suit to a job interview or important meeting. Causally, this is useful in part because it’s misleading; it signals more wealth, status, and professionalism than is entirely representative of who I am. But concluding that suit-wearing is ‘dark arts’ for that reason is rather melodramatic, given that it’s so weakly and indirectly misleading, that it’s perfectly normal for people to signal in this fashion, and that it isn’t purely dishonest signaling. (Going to the trouble of publishing a book or wearing a suit does mean that you have more commitment and resources than a random person.)
Ditto ‘going out of your way in any fashion to impress people on first dates is Dark Arts because it doesn’t show them the Real You’, ‘putting extra money into making fancy business cards for your small business is Dark Arts because it makes you look like a bigger deal than you are’, etc. There’s a line we shouldn’t cross, yes, but it concerns signaling that’s much more extreme and unusual than any of these examples.
I can’t tell whether you mean something much more trivial by ‘dark arts’ than I do, or whether you really think even PR on this small a scale is dangerously corrosive of our core epistemic standards. (Or is otherwise nefarious.)
As a toy example, suppose I don’t usually wear suits, but I decide to wear a suit to a job interview or important meeting. Causally, this is useful in part because it’s misleading; it signals more wealth, status, and professionalism than is entirely representative of who I am. But concluding that suit-wearing is ‘dark arts’ for that reason is rather melodramatic, given that it’s so weakly and indirectly misleading, that it’s perfectly normal for people to signal in this fashion, and that it isn’t purely dishonest signaling. (Going to the trouble of publishing a book or wearing a suit does mean that you have more commitment and resources than a random person.)
Ditto ‘going out of your way in any fashion to impress people on first dates is Dark Arts because it doesn’t show them the Real You’, ‘putting extra money into making fancy business cards for your small business is Dark Arts because it makes you look like a bigger deal than you are’, etc. There’s a line we shouldn’t cross, yes, but it concerns signaling that’s much more extreme and unusual than any of these examples.