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JonahSinick comments on How my social skills went from horrible to mediocre - Less Wrong
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What you're writing here is very close to what's been on my mind.
What I was responding to was "I don't think that such a comparison is ever truly innocuous."
That sounds like it's about your perceptions as opposed to other people's perceptions. :-). Did I misunderstand?
That specific line was my perception, yes.
The bit that followed it was intended as a general statement.
Ok, so can you help me understand your own perception?
Sure.
Here are my observations: It's a common tactic among politicians to favorably compare themselves to famous historical figures. It's common among cranks to compare their own struggles to the persecution of Galileo. In general, there's a rhetorical device of people comparing themselves to famous figures in order to imply that they have other characteristics in common. This has led me to assign a very low prior probability to such a comparison being wholly innocuous.
As a result, when I see such a statement made, my reaction is to become more a lot cynical about the piece and to question the author's motives.
Sure, this makes sense. But sufficiently strong filters will filter out people when they say very unusual things independently of whether or not they're true :D. Catching diamonds in the rough requires more refined heuristics. How would you be able to tell if somebody actually felt universal love and compassion like MLK?
I don't think I'd ever reach that conclusion based on someone's self-reporting. Too prone to bias.
So what would convince me? Well, the same way MLK convinced me: actions. Not in the sense of having to lead a civil rights movement, but rather in the sense of displaying that level of love and compassion when there is a cost to doing so. Are you so committed that you'd risk imprisonment or assassination? There's really no way for me to tell unless real life tests your mettle. I admit, it's a high bar. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
How then would I gauge the love and compassion of someone who had to hazard neither life nor liberty? I have on occasion witnessed people perform generous acts which would not have even occurred to me, but upon seeing them I could not doubt their rectitude. More common is just a general pattern of behavior: how an individual interacts with others.