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blacktrance comments on LINK: In favor of niceness, community, and civilisation - Less Wrong Discussion
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I'm with Scott. It's so natural to think that if your enemies are as ruthless as the Tsars and their goons, you need to be as ruthless as the Bolsheviks to fight them. But we all know how that worked out, and it hardly seems to be an outlier; rather, it seems to be the norm for those willing to sink to their opponents' level. If the goal is victory for our cause, and not just victory for some people who find it convenient to claim to be cheerleaders for our cause, we need to be very careful that our tactics are not training up Stalins within our ranks. Not that I'm advocating total purity at all times and in all respects, but I think before playing dirty you need to make sure you have a much better reason to think it's a good idea than "the other guys are doing it."
Well said. Also, an additional benefit of rational discussion is that it promotes truthseeking - people may discover that the cause that they're supporting is not the cause that they should be supporting. Under a "win at all costs" paradigm, arguments against your position are enemy soldiers, so if you win, it'll be without seriously considering the arguments of the opposition. That increases the likelihood of you being wrong. If your goal is something beyond personal power - if it's something like "the correct thing should win and become dominant" and not "I, as I am now, should win and become dominant" - then honest discussion is even more useful.
Also, as I mentioned here even if your initial cause was right, by lying about it you'll attract people who believe your lies. Thus, eventually your cause is likely to morph into something that is a bad idea.
Every revolution eats it's own children.
Other than the annihilation of the baby-eaters... But otherwise a really cool quote.