Looking at Scott Alexander’s Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, I guessed that the general Dark Side technique he’s describing was misrepresentation borne out of sloppy analog thinking. But at the end he points out that he has listed a set of Fully General Counterarguments, all of which are tools of the dark side since they can attack any position and lead to any conclusion:
It is an unchallengeable orthodoxy that you should wear a coat if it is cold out. Day after day we hear shrill warnings from the high priests of this new religion practically seething with hatred for anyone who might possibly dare to go out without a winter coat on. But these ideologues don’t realize that just wearing more jackets can’t solve all of our society’s problems. Here’s a reality check – no one is under any obligation to put on any clothing they don’t want to, and North Face and REI are not entitled to your hard-earned money. All that these increasingly strident claims about jackets do is shame underprivileged people who can’t afford jackets, suggesting them as legitimate targets for violence. In conclusion, do we really want to say that people should be judged by the clothes they wear? Or can we accept the unjacketed human body to be potentially just as beautiful as someone bundled beneath ten layers of coats?
Looking at Scott Alexander’s Argument From My Opponent Believes Something, I guessed that the general Dark Side technique he’s describing was misrepresentation borne out of sloppy analog thinking. But at the end he points out that he has listed a set of Fully General Counterarguments, all of which are tools of the dark side since they can attack any position and lead to any conclusion: