Definitely put on the Ialdabaoth hat. You do not in any circumstances have to consciously devise any advantage to hand to high-status people, because they already get all conceivable advantages for free.
If a nobody disagrees with, being less wrong than, Yudkowsky, they'll be silenced for all practical purposes. And I do think there was a time when people signalled by going against him, which was the proof of non-phyggishness. Phygs are bad.
You could try red-letter warnings atop posts saying, "there's a rebuttal by a poster banned from this topic: [link]", but I don't expect you will, because the particular writer obviously won't want that.
The shotgun, or its price wasn't at stake - money is never at stake with a military that has F-35s, and the Taliban likely has little use for a shotgun. What was at stake was you being put in your proper place before a corrupt institution. And many, many warriors throughout history simply weighed their options in chance of dying and weight of loot - which is, if nothing else, smarter than being in the US Armed Forces.