

Sam Altman and the Internet lynching problem - ggurgone
http://danieltenner.com/2014/08/13/sam-altman-internet-lynching-problem/

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xiaoma
It was a thoughtful piece, swombat, but it looks like the censors (human or
automated) have manipulated its ranking.

This article has 10 points in just 38 minutes and is on the second page. In
contrast, "Standing desk experiment and consequent knee injury" has only 5
points after an hour. The standing desk article is on the front page and this
article isn't.

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swombat
Yep... Not sure why that is to be honest. I've emailed dang about it but no
response yet!...

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dang
I was away all day and only just saw this.

The post got a ton of (what look to our system like) ring votes and was
flagged by an algorithm.

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PaulHoule
This is over thinking it.

What keeps a fight going is that two parties want to have a fight, they can't
tolerate that somebody else gets the last word. If you refuse to get involved
some other fool will get battered bloody.

The trouble with a long post like that is that it has a huge surface area and
inevitably there is something that can be taken out of context and then the
fisticuffs continue.

Rule 1 is don't get involved, but if you do get involved look at the methods
(not the words) of s.i. hayakawa. You don't make rational arguments but you
devise zingers of various sorts. One of the best is the falacious argument
that requires your opponent to leave their world view to refute.

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swombat
That sounds very interesting as a method... do you have some examples?

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cafard
Sorry, but 'why men tend to react to statements like “men are rapists” by
saying “hey, wait a minute, not all men are like that.” Because it’s of course
true – the majority of men are not rapists, wouldn’t dream of being rapists,
abhor rapists, would cut off social ties with anyone found to be a rapist
immediately, etc. But since option 1 is totally not available (rapists are
indefensible) and option 3 feels intuitively like a bad choice in the long
term, many men will pick option 2, and make the obviously true statement that
“hey, you’re exaggerating quite a bit there, not all men are rapists”.'

doesn't really answer it. The missing quantifier in "men are rapists" reads as
"all" not "some". To suggest that of course the person uttering the statement
meant "some" is to suggest a want of familiarity with the English language
that I find unlikely. And of course, prefixing "some" makes it all less
exciting, doesn't it?

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swombat
"Black people are thieves" illustrates pretty well why the "some" cannot be
taken for granted, even when it's logically evident.

Have a read through Scott Alexander's article if you still need more
convincing: [http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-
superweapo...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are-
superweapons/)

~~~
cafard
Perhaps my own ear needs adjusting, for I can't tell whether you are agreeing
with me or not. For the record, I agree with you, the "some" cannot be taken
for granted.

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yebyen
It is possible that your rank was reduced because of a detected voting ring.
That would be my guess, of course I have no idea if there is an actual voting
ring or not.

