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Notes -
You make some good points. The question of how I may effectively debate a suspected sanewasher is distinct from whether the prevalence of sanewashers means I should disbelieve something.
The most relevant Scottposts are in the Conflict vs. Mistake series, but I don’t know that he argued we actually have similar goals. (That does sound like a LessWrong position…) Scott seemed to recognize that the conflict-mode was way more realistic for things which could be considered “values differences.”
I framed it as individual conversations in part because of ymeskhout’s last paragraph, which I assumed meant debate. It does make more sense if he’s talking about blogposts or other one-sided constructions. Even so, it strikes me as rather…conflict-theorist. Is there really no legitimate reason why an opponent would accuse you of weakmanning? If I really am tilting at windmills, then I’ve done something wrong.
As for bleaching…fair enough. I was thinking of Tvtropes’s Bleached Underpants, referring to a very particular sort of censorship. Though I will say the negative connotation of bleaching is still appropriate for sanewashing. I think sanewashing is more an accusation than a self-description. In that context, it makes sense that the (deceptive) sane version gets the negative connotation, even if the insane versatile is also despised.
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