IlyaShpitser comments on Three more ways identity can be a curse - Less Wrong

40 Post author: gothgirl420666 28 April 2013 02:53AM

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Comment author: Mestroyer 28 April 2013 05:26:13PM 5 points [-]

Now that this has turned into a discussion about statistics, it's more important than politeness.

There are times when complaining about a social rule being broken is a worse infraction than breaking it in the first place. Your injunction to avoid pointing out flaws in someone's reasoning because it's impolite has left a far worse taste in my mouth than any insult by prior probability of the form: "you're probably about average quality for a poster, because one post isn't enough to prove otherwise."