(March 6, 2019 at 5:49 pm)Yonadav Wrote: I get a little more vexed when someone is just distorting my position and my character simply because they think that everything has to be an argument.
Good point. This is worse than just name-calling, because it requires the misuse of reason. (As Dante shows, it is more evil to use your reason for bad purposes than merely to fly off the handle.)
When this kind of thing happens I think it shows how little people are interested in spreading the truth, after all. It isn't about standing up for what's correct or improving understanding in the world. If that is what people are after, the "principle of charity" always works better.
And most importantly the principle of charity, I think, benefits the person employing it more than the recipient. Because bullying is about enforcing conformity to an unstated norm. Whereas someone who wants to improve his thinking will be careful not to push away alternative ideas without making a careful effort to engage them at their best.
