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TimS comments on Open Thread May 16 - May 22, 2016 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: Elo 15 May 2016 11:35PM

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Comment author: entirelyuseless 22 May 2016 04:28:04PM -1 points [-]

Whether it's true in that case or not, it frequently happens that someone will start to act like they disagree with you about everything, because they happen to disagree about a few issues. And that definitely can cause them to do things that they otherwise wouldn't do, just because you suggest that doing them is a bad idea.

Comment author: TimS 22 May 2016 09:48:52PM 2 points [-]

Alternatively, the causal arrow goes in the other direction. People don't give your practical opinions much weight, but you don't realize the gulf until you have a flare up about ideological disagreement.

I agree that ideological disagree can lead to lower weight to opinions, but if the gulf is as large as OP described, then I suspect the blow up was a symptom, not a cause.

Comment author: entirelyuseless 23 May 2016 01:34:36PM 0 points [-]

I know at least a few people who have >90% chance of agreeing with basically anything I say, if they happen to be in a good mood, and almost the same chance of disagreeing, if they happen to be in a bad mood.

Comment author: Lumifer 23 May 2016 03:14:49PM 1 point [-]

Do they actually mean anything by their (dis)agreement, or it's just content-free social noises indicating "good, good" or "bad, bad"?