This analysis seems fair to me.
One mitigating feature I think is that precisely because the vacuous applause light statements aren’t meant to be action-guiding, they generally are not action-guiding. Hopefully Bob makes his remark and then people nod wisely and go on with selecting the best candidates as if ~nothing had happened.
I think there is still a danger that something that should have been a mere applause light is misinterpreted as action-guiding (as Alice did here) but this time by Chloe who accepts the remark uncritically. Chloe may then go on to form real policies and plans based on Bob’s remark.
So yes this seems bad, but hopefully not really bad. In terms of what to do about it, perhaps if more people start engaging critically with applause light statements and they are shown up to be without much thought or substance, this renders making such statements negative in terms of social value and fixes the problem. But perhaps more likely is that the people engaging critically with applause lights are hounded down for being insensitive. Tricky.
This analysis seems fair to me. One mitigating feature I think is that precisely because the vacuous applause light statements aren’t meant to be action-guiding, they generally are not action-guiding. Hopefully Bob makes his remark and then people nod wisely and go on with selecting the best candidates as if ~nothing had happened. I think there is still a danger that something that should have been a mere applause light is misinterpreted as action-guiding (as Alice did here) but this time by Chloe who accepts the remark uncritically. Chloe may then go on to form real policies and plans based on Bob’s remark. So yes this seems bad, but hopefully not really bad. In terms of what to do about it, perhaps if more people start engaging critically with applause light statements and they are shown up to be without much thought or substance, this renders making such statements negative in terms of social value and fixes the problem. But perhaps more likely is that the people engaging critically with applause lights are hounded down for being insensitive. Tricky.