Reddit Has Become a Battleground of Alleged Chinese Trolls

Re:Reddit Has Become a Battleground of Alleged Chinese Trolls by dvt on Friday March 15, 2019 @03:42PM (#19403458)

I don't mean to dodge your question, I just think it's very hard to answer. What I do think is that Socrates was trying to point out flaws in deeply-held beliefs. I don't think it's hard to argue that when pointing out flaws in deeply-held beliefs, the subject at hand will get angry -- or at the very least uncomfortable.

So, much like "no pain, no gain," anger and discourse often go hand in hand.

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Re:Reddit Has Become a Battleground of Alleged Chinese Trolls by mcphage on Friday March 15, 2019 @04:46PM (#19404130)

> I just think it's very hard to answer. What I do think is that Socrates was trying to point out flaws in deeply-held beliefs.

I don't think it's hard to answer at all—in fact, you answered it right there. No, Socrates objective wasn't to get people angry. His objective was to point out flaws in deeply held beliefs.

> I don't think it's hard to argue that when pointing out flaws in deeply-held beliefs, the subject at hand will get angry -- or at the very least uncomfortable.

It definitely can, but there's still a difference between trying to inflict anger, and anger being an undesirable possible side effect.

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Re:Reddit Has Become a Battleground of Alleged Chinese Trolls by dvt on Friday March 15, 2019 @05:05PM (#19404287)

> I don't think it's hard to answer at all—in fact, you answered it right there.

I guess I did shoot myself in the foot there :)

I was trying to reconcile this: suppose Socrates was a dick and actually did get pleasure out of annoying people -- and the pointing out of the flaws was actually the side-effect. Would his execution somehow have been justified?

I still don't think so.

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