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A comment on Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media. Parent comment

Re:Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media by tripletao on Saturday July 11, 2020 @12:20AM (#23799455)
I don't usually comment on political topics like this one, but here's a thread where someone corrected my oversimplified view of the Fed's current bond market interventions. It took several levels of replies for me to understand what they meant, and I later corrected someone else who continued to argue for my initial (and misleading) view:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23421917

Close enough? Or in a different sub-thread here (that the mods seem to have detached), another poster and I probably still disagree on the original question, but we did manage a respectful discussion in which we agreed on other related points:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23783613

I didn't mean it as a rhetorical device--I'm genuinely curious, how someone came to be so sure that I'm wrong that it's not even worth explaining why. There's very few things I'm that sure of.

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Re:Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media by tptacek on Saturday July 11, 2020 @12:23AM (#23799477)
It's easy to reach certainty that the conversation you're engaged in has no hope of becoming productive, far easier than reaching any kind of (ugh) "epistemic" certainty. It's helpful to recognize that; otherwise, you're at risk of being the annoying dude in the meme sitting behind a card table on a college quad, "change my mind".
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Re:Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media by tripletao on Saturday July 11, 2020 @01:22AM (#23799737)
I'm afraid that you're probably right. So what should I have done differently? What could have changed pvg's mind, or at least generated something like a respectful and substantive discussion in which they explained the reasons for their differing views (which you'll see that I did manage with several other posters who disagree with me in this thread)?

A snarky original post like the one I wrote here starts from a negative interaction with someone who disagrees, which I agree is bad. You'll find mostly more nuanced comments in my history, including those about semi-political topics like the coronavirus; but those mostly get no replies at all.

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Re:Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media by tptacek on Saturday July 11, 2020 @11:52AM (#23803065)
Sometimes it's fine just to give up on a thread. Cards->table, I can't tell you what would change 'pvg's mind, because I agree with him.
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