Failure to steel man.
Abuse of the 'steel man' concept and attempt to introduce a toxic social norm. I am strongly opposed to this influence.
MixedNuts attempts to refute a quote using a non-sequitur. Supporting a false refutation is not being generous, it is being biased. It is being unfair to the initial speaker.
Replacing "everyone" with "people" leaves the basic point unchanged.
So much so that it leaves the basic point a straw man.
Supporting a false refutation is not being generous, it is being biased. It is being unfair to the initial speaker.
Steel-manning a refutation does not equal supporting that refutation. In fact, steel-manning entails criticizing the original refutation, at least implicitly.
However, when a claim is plausibly intended to be a hyperbolic version of a reasonable claim, pointing out that the hyperbolic version is a straw man, without addressing the reasonable version, is mostly just poisoning the discourse.
(This charge doesn't apply to you if you sincerely b...
Another month has passed and here is a new rationality quotes thread. The usual rules are: