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I had a similar visceral reaction in #1532680 to something @optimism wrote.
I blamed the medium there, and I would blame the medium here. I don’t think that’s (only) me excusing my behaviour. I think our communication channels shape how we communicate.
For example, I would love to talk about this a lot more, but it’s kind of annoying to type, you know?
I don't think it's just the medium. It's a known issue with economists, that people sometimes have a visceral negative reaction to how we talk. Since we analyze human behavior and economic efficiency from a morally neutral lens, it often comes off as cold, amoral, and uncaring to a lot of people, and they assume that economists have no values other than economic efficiency. It's also reinforced by some talking heads on TV who emphasize economic growth above all else (see #1567808).
What I want people to understand is that being able to talk about things in a morally neutral way doesn't mean you don't have a moral opinion. And making a morally neutral argument doesn't mean I don't take moral arguments seriously.
I will stand my ground and insist that you must understand the morally neutral arguments first before you should begin to discuss the moral arguments, though. Moral arguments have to be grounded in how people will actually act, not just how you wish they'd act.
I think it would have afforded more opportunity for back and forth to (hopefully) build understanding at least
And probably facial expression and tone would have mattered in a way that can't get across online
It doesn't help that we often do things like dividing people into "high types" and "low types".
If you're really smart or brave (or have a big computer) you can throw in a medium type too.
Meh, probably more complexity than the world requires.
It's a bummer when conversations go sideways like that.
I try to remind myself to ask more questions when that's happening, to limit the number of false assumptions I might be reading in.
Just being my usual asshole economist self. We truly can't help it.
I feel yah. We're incurable bitches
*We're incredible, bitches!
*We're incredible bitches
Shit
*We're incurable, bitches!
That's the spirit
Take a look at the comment: #1421509
Just being my usual asshole economist self. We truly can't help it.