I think that even in the EA community, there are people who vote based on whether or not they like the point being made, as opposed to whether or not the logic underlying a point is valid or not. I think this happens to explain the downvotes on my comment—some asymmetrists just don’t like longtermism and want their asymmetry to be a valid way out of it.
I don’t necessarily think this phenomenon applies to downvotes on other comments I might make though—I’m not arrogant enough to think I’m always right!
I have a feeling this phenomenon is increasing. As the movement grows we will attract people with a wider range of views and so we may see more (unjustifiable) downvoting as people downvote things that don’t align to their views (regardless of the strength of argument). I’m not sure if this will happen, but it might, and to some degree I have already started to lose some confidence in the relationship between comment/post quality and karma.
I think that even in the EA community, there are people who vote based on whether or not they like the point being made, as opposed to whether or not the logic underlying a point is valid or not. I think this happens to explain the downvotes on my comment—some asymmetrists just don’t like longtermism and want their asymmetry to be a valid way out of it.
I don’t necessarily think this phenomenon applies to downvotes on other comments I might make though—I’m not arrogant enough to think I’m always right!
I have a feeling this phenomenon is increasing. As the movement grows we will attract people with a wider range of views and so we may see more (unjustifiable) downvoting as people downvote things that don’t align to their views (regardless of the strength of argument). I’m not sure if this will happen, but it might, and to some degree I have already started to lose some confidence in the relationship between comment/post quality and karma.