Open thread, May 17-31 2013

15Dahlen13y

Right. Stop. Just stop. I can see right through what you're doing now. It wasn't a "perfectly reasonable hypothesis", it was meant to reflect bad on me; it was an oblique accusation that I broke the social norm of not calling people stupid, or not arrogantly believing everybody who disagrees with me to be stupid. Of course I don't believe that you, or anybody smart enough to be on LW, would ever give serious consideration to the hypothesis that they're really, truly, honest-to-God dumb; no, you're a bunch of reasonably smart guys that are aware that they're smart. Of course that I chose the other interpretation of your words, the one that is in line with your interests in this discussion, the one that doesn't conflict with the fact that people tend to maintain a flattering image of themselves, especially when facing people they disagree with, the one that is consistent with the kind of attitude you maintained towards me during this discussion -- the one that assumes bad faith on your part. So no, you can't just go around now and say that, oh, no, it was totally sincere and innocent. As for the big question of the story -- do I believe one has to be a dumbass like this acquaintance of mine to disagree with me on this? Of course not -- predictably. I wasn't surprised that they (the acquaintance) didn't see it because, take my word for it, they just weren't blessed with great intelligence. If, on the other hand, I see someone on here disagreeing with me on this, I explain it to myself this way: perhaps they misunderstood, or perhaps they reacted badly to one part of my post and consistency compelled them to react badly to the rest, or maybe even (but this is unlikely) I am missing something. But the hypothesis that I just ran into a complete idiot doesn't cross my mind. And I'm writing this just so that I don't have to explain myself again. That was tiresome. Going through the intricacies of interpersonal affairs always is. Please, do me a favour and next time we ta

Oligopsony13y-100

Stop this. Seriously.

Stop what? I haven't the faintest idea what my IQ is, and you proposed low IQ as a reason for incomprehension in this instance. Why throw out a perfectly reasonable hypothesis?

A1987dM13y-20

I haven't the faintest idea what my IQ is

Don't you? If you're a human, it's almost certainly somewhere between 10 and 190; if you made it through high school, it's very likely over 70; if you have a university degree, it's probably over 90; if you haven't won a Nobel Prize or similar, it's probably below 160; must... resist... the temptation of making examples using the words “black” or “Jewish”; and so on.