DonaldMcIntyre comments on How to debate when authority is questioned, but really not needed? - Less Wrong

3 Post author: DonaldMcIntyre 23 February 2015 01:44AM

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Comment author: DonaldMcIntyre 23 February 2015 06:37:23PM 0 points [-]

This is an example of refuting my argument by actually arguing about it instead of discrediting me because I am not an economist.

My problem is when instead of your answer above you write "are you an economist? have you investigated this?" with the obvious objective of coming after my answer with an "ok, so your premise is false because you don't know what you are talking about".

Comment author: CronoDAS 24 February 2015 12:26:10AM 2 points [-]

This is an example of refuting my argument by actually arguing about it instead of discrediting me because I am not an economist.

Yeah, hence the [missing the point] label... ;)

My problem is when instead of your answer above you write "are you an economist? have you investigated this?" with the obvious objective of coming after my answer with an "ok, so your premise is false because you don't know what you are talking about".

Yeah. That's a pain in the neck.

Silly counter-rebuttal:

"Well, are you an economist?"

Not-so-silly counter-rebuttals:

No, but this is Econ 101 stuff you can look up on Wikipedia or whatever.
No, but that's what Famous Economist wrote. Here, go look at his stuff. (link)
No, so I might be confused about something. Can you explain where I went wrong?

Comment author: TheAncientGeek 24 February 2015 11:10:30AM 1 point [-]

Is that really the obvious objective? Maybe they are saying you should research the topic. "Printing money" is a red flag phrase, like discussing evolution in terms of your grandfather being a monkey.