Lumifer comments on A Voting Puzzle, Some Political Science, and a Nerd Failure Mode - Less Wrong
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It seemed the discussion turned into a spat. I apologize for my role in this transformation and bow out.
A piece of well-intentioned advice: When you're involved in a disagreement, responding to someone's argument with "LOL" or a smiley emoticon signals dismissiveness and borderline hostility. It seemed to me in places that you were actively trying to turn the discussion into a spat. Since it appears that this was not actually your intention, you might reconsider that particular (easily-adjusted, I think) rhetorical tic.
In my usual vocabulary, it does signal dismissiveness, but not hostility. Unrolled, it says "Your point/argument/position does not pass the laugh test, I consider your assertion ridiculous, either reconsider it or provide strong support".
As to smileys in my posts, they are "adjectives" for my own words and usually serve to soften the impact (e.g. explicitly show lack of hostility).
I use “Are you fucking kidding me” for that. (I only feel the need to do that once every couple of years, though.)
That is (for me) a considerably stronger version which would generally imply that I consider the poster beyond the hope of redemption and am about to get medieval on his ass :-D
Sometimes interaction strategies are not mutually beneficial. In such cases non-engagement is a practical and all to often neglected option. Wise move.