Yvain makes the mistake of believing that the person he is arguing with is the person he is convincing.
I'm not interested in convincing Lukas of anything. My target is the audience, who I'm not arguing with, but negotiating with.
Observe the neutral karma score of my rude comment, at least as of now - it might change, as I reveal something: Had I been so rude to somebody else in different circumstances, it would have been deeply negative. Lukas lost considerable status by complaining about being downvoted, and half the participating audience is happy to upvote me for targeting somebody who has thus earned a lowered status. Those who downvote largely agree with the status assessment, but, like you, disagree with my behavior.
Everybody who upvoted my rude comment, or was tempted to? I was acting like a bully of an approved low-status target - and you approved. Chew on that. (And observe your cognitive dissonance, as you rationalize that being a bully might be appropriate in some circumstances, given the right target.)
Observe the neutral karma score of my rude comment, at least as of now ... Everybody who upvoted my rude comment, or was tempted to? ...
Now I'm almost sorry I didn't see your comment while it had neutral karma. I believe I wouldn't have upvoted it, but that's exactly the kind of judgement I don't trust.
Okay, I generally have a rule to never upvote comments that speak about their own karma ("it may get me downvoted"), so at least that would have stopped me, if nothing else.
Anyway... such drama... so meta... wow
Cross-posted from my blog here.
One of the greatest successes of mankind over the last few centuries has been the enormous amount of wealth that has been created. Once upon a time virtually everyone lived in grinding poverty; now, thanks to the forces of science, capitalism and total factor productivity, we produce enough to support a much larger population at a much higher standard of living.
EAs being a highly intellectual lot, our preferred form of ritual celebration is charts. The ordained chart for celebrating this triumph of our people is the Declining Share of People Living in Extreme Poverty Chart.
(Source)
However, as a heretic, I think this chart is a mistake. What is so great about reducing the share? We could achieve that by killing all the poor people, but that would not be a good thing! Life is good, and poverty is not death; it is simply better for it to be rich.
As such, I think this is a much better chart. Here we show the world population. Those in extreme poverty are in purple – not red, for their existence is not bad. Those who the wheels of progress have lifted into wealth unbeknownst to our ancestors, on the other hand, are depicted in blue, rising triumphantly.
Long may their rise continue.