HungryTurtle comments on Defense Against The Dark Arts: Case Study #1 - Less Wrong

100 Post author: Yvain 28 March 2009 02:31AM

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Comment author: Nebu 23 April 2012 01:59:38PM *  0 points [-]

It's tough for Nebu_2012 to remember what Nebu_2009 was thinking, exactly, when he wrote that comment 3 years ago.

That said, it seems like Nebu_2009 did feel/believe/thought/whatever-word-you-want-to-use that the comment had "real merit": He claimed that the comment was "interesting" and "entertaining".

Your use of "support" may be (probably unintentionally) misleading, as it looks like Nebu_2009 was explicitly saying that he did not agree with the statement, and when someone talks about "supporting" a comment, I usually infer them to mean agreeing with the comment. Nebu_2009 seems to be supporting it only insofar that he thinks other people may also find the comment interesting and entertaining, and thus upvoted it to increase its visibility (I'm assuming; I can't recall exactly what Nebu_2009 was thinking).

But it looks like you may have fallen into that very equivocation trap when you ask, slightly later on in the thread, "If you support something how is it something you do not agree with, and why are you supporting something you do not agree with?"

Comment author: HungryTurtle 23 April 2012 02:07:42PM 0 points [-]

Could you explain your last paragraph a little more?

Comment author: Nebu 16 August 2012 02:12:38AM 1 point [-]

I'm saying "support" has two meanings in this context: "to agree with" and "to wish for other people to read".

When I used "support" to mean "I wish for other people to read this comment", you interpreted that as "I agree with this comment", and this is where I believe the misunderstanding occurred.