All of phonypapercut's Comments + Replies

I'd go further, and say it's grossly narcissistic and hypocritical. The framing of nerds vs. non-nerds is itself an example of the described mode of communication.

8Gordon Seidoh Worley
I read both this comment and the parent comment to be taking the OP in bad faith. Bound_up has taken the time to share their thinking with us and, while it may be there is an offensive interpretation of the post, it violates the discourse norms I'd at least like to see here to outright dismiss something as "bad". Some of the other comments under the parent comment make this a bit clearer, but even the most generous interpretations I can find of many of these comments lack much more content than "shut up OP".

No. I assert that it would be (mildly) evil of you to give me white wine, given knowledge of my preference for red and equal availability.

0Lumifer
It might be under certain moral systems. It's probably not under other moral systems. It almost certainly depends a lot on the context.

Not wrongness as a property of the wine no. But given knowledge of my preference and all else being equal, would it not be wrong to give me white over red?

0Lumifer
You are mixing up two meanings of wrong: * morally wrong (approximately = evil) * not suited to Serving white wine with steak might well be wrong in the not appropriate sense, but it is not wrong in the moral sense.

It's relevant because it determines whether the question matters.

Then it seems clear to me that the question shouldn't matter to you. Objectivists may be interventionists at a higher rate than relativists, but that bears no relation to which position is true.

No, not wrong. But having a different set of consequences.

That set of consequences being unpreferred, presumably. What is that if not an expression of (relative) wrongness?

0Lumifer
If you prefer red wine over white, that is not an expression of white wine's wrongness.

I don't disagree in any regard. I still fail to see how this is relevant to the admitted point of contention;

whether calling moral ideas "true" or "false" is a category error.

As an aside, I infer that you think imposing one's morals on another would be wrong. Is that not a moral absolute itself?

0Lumifer
It's relevant because it determines whether the question matters. If some dude somewhere finds my behaviour immoral, I couldn't care less. If the same dude decides he needs to do something about it, we'll have to solve this disagreement somehow. No, not wrong. But having a different set of consequences.
0username2
Empirically that is not so. There are major world religions based on the fact that everyone should hold the one true belief and accord with its god-given morality. Followers of such religions profess, and those of the evangelist variety follow through with imposing their morals on others and believing it is the right thing to do. Somewhat more secular is, say, the belief in equal rights for women or minorities. Lots of people on both sides have strong views about forced wearing of the hajib in some muslim countries. Advocating for woman in Saudi Arabia to have the right to drive, when you don't live in or have any connection to that region of the world is trying to enforce one's morals on another, right?

Agreed. Hence "if any". So why start talking about imposing morals?

1Lumifer
Basically, for objectivists (with respect to morals), having some other morality is wrong. For relativists it's merely different. The former is a much stronger cause for intervention than the latter. Also, willingness to insist on your morality is generally a sign of taking it seriously.

The issue is whether you should attempt to impose your morality, by force if necessary, on another human who doesn't agree with it.

The implication being moral absolutists think morality should be imposed by force? That seems far from being universally true, not least in rationalist circles.

Anyway, the point of contention isn't which moral ideas win or lose, but which, if any, are true.

4Lumifer
Actually, the point of contention is whether calling moral ideas "true" or "false" is a category error.

Now, I'm not addressing those that say morality is subjective and those that live solely for themselves.

I'd wager those not addressed are more numerous than you think, especially among lurkers.

I'm not confident that this better accounts for the disparity between your expectations and the survey numbers than confused altruists, but the thought occurs.

0Zarm
I didn't think they weren't numerous. There just isn't a point debating morality with someone who says "morality is subjective." I usually leave those people alone. I don't think I consciously had this thought though, so thank you that actually could be a different explanation.

Wouldn't negative income tax be a fairly strong incentive to stay/become unemployed for those near the cut-off?

3buybuydandavis
Tax rates even now are on marginal dollars to avoid cut off effects. If the cutoff is X for a tax bracket N, and you make X+1, X dollars are taxed in the N tax bracket, and 1 dollar is taxed at the N+1 tax bracket.
3drethelin
This is why I prefer guaranteed minimum income

That post wouldn't exist if the karma penalty hadn't been implemented.

1Viliam_Bur
Agree denotationally... but I hope you are not proposing a policy of avoiding things that could make trolls unhappy with this site.
1NancyLebovitz
And even so, it's only 15 comments.
1dbaupp
Oh, yeah... nevertheless, the history of the post & comment authors contains some "trolling".

It seems likely to me that assault isn't involved in this at all, it's just illegal to buy or administer anesthetics without a medical license.

0aelephant
Why is it illegal to buy or administer anesthetics without a medical license? Just defending the monopoly or is there some legitimate reason?

Using surgical tools like a scalpel is a grey area for piercers. Operating with these instruments, or any kind of anestheia, could be classified as practicing medicine. Without a medical license, a piercer who does this is technically committing assault on the person getting the implant.

4falenas108
So, an action by itself is not assault, but if you do the same action but make sure it doesn't hurt the patient, it is assault?

Anybody had success in dealing with acne?

3D_Malik
This person seems to know what they're talking about.
0[anonymous]
You might try tracking down the cause, it isn't always obvious. I used to have a regular problem with it, not very bad, but constant. I discovered, almost by accident, but confirmed it by experiment, that it was caused by the alcohol in aftershaves. Since switching to just wiping my face with a wet cloth after shaving the problem has disappeared.
1Petra
This worked well for me, though it's a bit aggressive.

Many forms of contraceptives are already free from non-profits. And they're pretty cheap otherwise. I don't think mandating that insurance cover contraceptives would affect their use very much.

1Brigid
While Planned Parenthood clearly could be biased, they state (noteably without a reference) that " Women typically pay between $15 and $50 a month in co-pays for birth control pills — $180 to $600 a year." Even $180 is pretty expensive. They also claim that " More than one-third of all women voters have struggled to pay for prescription birth control at some point in their lives, and have as a result used birth control inconsistently." Finally, "On average, a woman spends 30 years of her life trying to avoid pregnancy. That means 30 years of paying for birth control."

Why is a government more likely to cover preventative care? If the argument is it's cheaper, a private insurer or individual paying out of pocket has just as much, if not more, incentive to pay for it.

7mwengler
If the benefits of preventative care are realized over the rest of the patient's life, then an insurance company is only incentivized to pay for it if they are obligated to insure you for the rest of your life. Which is true for gov't insurance, but not for any private insurance I am aware of. Even requiring any insurance company to insure any person in the group at any time they ask for it is not enough to change the insurance company's incentive: they would still be wise to "free ride" on any other preventative care payer than to pay for it themselves.

I'd suggest not giving her a book overtly about atheism. Something more broadly about skepticism would be a better choice I think. The Demon-Haunted World gets a lot of recommendations, though I haven't actually read it myself.

0philh
In non-fiction, The Philosophy Gym might be suitable. I've read the first three chapters and they seemed fairly clear-thinking. (I was reading with an eye to writing a review; it's been a month or so since I picked it up, but there was no particular reason I stopped.)

I think it might be better to have both options be vote up. Seems the first voter was confused. If I vote now it will look as if nobody has voted.

There's also the problem of the vote down option being hidden.

2gjm
I've posted new comments: vote for AI section, vote against AI section, karma balance. I will of course not be offended if Alex chooses to delete the whole article and start over, and if s/he would prefer me to delete my comments then I'll do so.
7David_Gerard
Yes, the voting is non-standard. Suggest delete and start over.

I think that's confusing enough that I'd take the voting patterns as very weak evidence about the preferences of LWers, and basically set it aside altogether. Sorry!

0Alex_Altair
Guh... too late now, I think.
2VincentYu
Crap... I was that confused first voter.

Wouldn't killing be better described in this context as coercion? Which feels distinct from persuasion, to me.

0wedrifid
On humans it does both. Humans are persuaded by power, not merely coerced. (Being persuaded like that is a handy 'hypocrisy' skill given bounded cognition.)

I think you're confusing high intensity with high impact. Taking weight with you on a jog shouldn't, I think, make it much more effective as a cardio workout. It's just going to be harder on the joints and muscles bearing the weight.

A stationary bike would be a good alternative if one is having joint issues.

3OrphanWilde
The point was less about the weights, which I decided later were a horrible idea, and I have no idea what made me think they were a good idea to begin with. The point behind that suggestion is that the weights show you how much extra body weight affects your ability to engage in cardio exercise. If you haven't been fifty pounds overweight, the effects aren't necessarily obvious. I switched to zero-impact exercise, but had already hurt myself, and had significant trouble until I gave up on exercise and switched to the strategy of diet-first, exercise-later, which has worked better for me.

I had to laugh at the little caption.

"If they each behave rationally they end up doing worse."

timtyler180

That's what happens in Bayesian hell.

Would it? There would be greater contrast between the reinforcement and the ignoring of poor performance.

3[anonymous]
Well the idea I was going for was that it would be better to praise improvements in skill rather than just good performance.

Hello. I've been browsing articles that show up on the front page for about a year now. Just recently started going through the sequences and decided it would be a good time to create an account.