Emile comments on Undiscriminating Skepticism - Less Wrong

97 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 March 2010 11:23PM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 26 September 2011 02:04:12AM *  3 points [-]

I would guess (charitably, I hope) that you expect that any carefully measured, rational discussion of any issue should not be offensive.

Why would anyone expect that?

What does it mean to be offended? How is it different from being insulted? Is an insult that is true not an insult?

Comment author: Emile 26 September 2011 03:13:40PM 2 points [-]

Relevant: The Nature of Offense.

As you may have guessed by now, I think the answer is status. Specifically, to give offense is to imply that a person or group has or should have low status. Taking offense then becomes easy to explain: it’s to defend someone’s status from such an implication, out of a sense of either fairness or self-interest.

Seems to match this case perfectly.