Overview

This article is an extended reply to Scott Alexander's Conflict vs. Mistake.

Whenever the topic has come up in the past, I have always said I lean more towards conflict theory over mistake theory; however, on revisiting the original article, I realize that either I've been using those terms in a confusing way, and/or the usage of the terms has morphed in such a way that confusion is inevitable. My opinion now is that the conflict/mistake dichotomy is overly simplistic because:

One will generally have different kinds of conversations with different people at different times. I may adopt a "mistake" stance when talking with someone who's already on board with our shared goal X, where we try to figure out how best to achieve X; but then later adopt a "conflict" stance with someone who thinks X is bad. Nobody is a "mistake theorist" or "conflict theorist" [...]

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Outline:

(00:03) Overview

(01:50) The chart

(01:55) Explanation of the chart

(03:15) Constructing the model

(03:43) Four stances

(04:47) What do we mean by sincerity?

(06:46) Limitation to two-party discussions

(07:32) Sixteen roles / ten modes

(11:07) Explaining confusability

(13:34) Prior art

(15:25) Summary of open questions

(17:19) Revisiting the original article

(17:41) Cassandra/Mule discourse is the most frustrating kind

(20:05) Im not misanthropic, I just dont like you

(22:03) Free speech

(25:08) Personal note: Ill take a Chavrusa over a Guru any day

(25:45) Concluding remarks

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First published:
January 31st, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5jDCSngjAruufwXx7/ten-modes-of-culture-war-discourse

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Ten Modes of Culture War Discourse” by jchan

LessWrong (30+ Karma)