wedrifid comments on Trying to hide bad signaling? To the Dark Side, lead you it will. - Less Wrong

6 [deleted] 16 January 2011 07:12AM

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Comment author: wedrifid 17 January 2011 05:26:35PM *  -1 points [-]

For example, suppose I want someone to think that making use of human biases is a bad thing, and so I label that activity using words with negatively weighted denotations like "exploit" and "dark."

What have I made worse, by so doing?

Now that was well done. Although technically you would have counter-factually made the universe worse according to your values. You will have lost a small measure of respect from your audience and by so doing reduced your social influence - a critical instrumental resource. Even worse your credibility will have decreased most specifically when it comes to moral authority.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 17 January 2011 08:10:34PM 0 points [-]

(nods) Agreed, given that my audience is such that I lose more respect/influence/authority than I gain. Which some audiences are.