At the time, I remarked to some friends that it felt weird that this was being presented as a new insight to this audience in 2023 rather than already being local conventional wisdom.[1] (Compare “Bad Intent Is a Disposition, Not a Feeling” (2017) or “Algorithmic Intent” (2020).) Better late than never!
The “status” line at the top does characterize it as partially “common wisdom”, but it’s currently #14 in the 2023 Review 1000+ karma voting, suggesting novelty to the audience.
To be fair, it’s a surprisingly cultural trait where different cultures have different attitudes to how much bad intent is different from action, and there is a use in trying to distinguish between bad behavior and bad mental states, that said if the US and Europe moved more towards norms in which we didn’t distinguish as much between bad behavior and bad intent for the purposes of stopping the behavior, I do think it would be better (I think Zack M Davis norms is directionally correct from a personal epistemics view and for the general population in the US, though not as far as he would go):
At the time, I remarked to some friends that it felt weird that this was being presented as a new insight to this audience in 2023 rather than already being local conventional wisdom.[1] (Compare “Bad Intent Is a Disposition, Not a Feeling” (2017) or “Algorithmic Intent” (2020).) Better late than never!
The “status” line at the top does characterize it as partially “common wisdom”, but it’s currently #14 in the 2023 Review 1000+ karma voting, suggesting novelty to the audience.
Presenting the same ideas differently is pro-social and worthwhile, and can help things land with those for whom other presentations didn’t.
To be fair, it’s a surprisingly cultural trait where different cultures have different attitudes to how much bad intent is different from action, and there is a use in trying to distinguish between bad behavior and bad mental states, that said if the US and Europe moved more towards norms in which we didn’t distinguish as much between bad behavior and bad intent for the purposes of stopping the behavior, I do think it would be better (I think Zack M Davis norms is directionally correct from a personal epistemics view and for the general population in the US, though not as far as he would go):
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zidQmfFhMgwFzcHhs/enemies-vs-malefactors#jCfNxzCEniu7Ak8bF
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zidQmfFhMgwFzcHhs/enemies-vs-malefactors#p9oYLR8wTQtYrKnnn