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Really? I think it should be quite important to call out bullshit for what it is. The way I see it, there's way too much of that floating around.

I see it not as "name-calling". But if this is against whatever the powers that be see as the "spirit of the site", I shall remain silent.

Back to lurking it is.



The trouble with "call out bullshit" is that the commenters taking this approach usually overestimate their comments and underestimate their provocations (by a good 10x); and do the opposite for comments and provocations coming from the other side. This compounds to quite a bias—and does a lot more damage to the threads than they realize or intend.

It just leads to a downward spiral and (eventually) scorched earth, and none of that is what we're here for. We want curious conversation and interesting threads.




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