Johnicholas comments on The Contrarian Status Catch-22 - Less Wrong

49 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 December 2009 10:40PM

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Comment author: Johnicholas 21 December 2009 04:21:26PM 0 points [-]

Yes, I agree. Rhetorical techniques are about persuasion, not truth. Possibly "stronger" should have been "more palatable" or "more acceptable to the non-choir".

Comment author: wedrifid 21 December 2009 11:08:22PM 1 point [-]

or "more acceptable to the non-choir".

"More acceptable to the choir" would be more accurate. Around here the in-group signalling chorus is "other people are sycophants and I am better connected and less gullible". More generally, the choir signal is "I consider any comments that don't advocated deference to status unacceptable because I am high status myself and want the approval of those even higher". From this it is easy to extract Contrarian Status Catch 18.