Court_Merrigan comments on Why Our Kind Can't Cooperate - Less Wrong

132 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 March 2009 08:37AM

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Comment author: Court_Merrigan 21 March 2009 02:33:32AM -1 points [-]

I don't believe you.

Comment author: rhollerith 21 March 2009 05:31:09AM 0 points [-]

Don't believe my advocacy of the moral position is not really just signaling or don't believe I've held the moral position since 1992?

Comment author: Court_Merrigan 21 March 2009 05:50:23AM *  0 points [-]

I don't know how long you've held the position, or much care - I don't think it's relevant. But it is signaling, I think, for 2 reasons:

  • Your public concern with saying it's not signaling is just a way of signaling;
  • Claiming a certain timespan of belief is just an old locker room way of saying "I got here first." Which surely is signaling.

This is the sort of thing that causes unnecessary splintering in groups. I have a very visceral reaction to this sort of signaling (which I would label preening, actually). Perhaps I should examine that.