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Phil Christman's avatar

I seem to have different premises about this than a lot of people do. To me, if an idea is influential or seems so, and it’s bad, it’s worth attacking. You don’t have to refute only the steelman version of a position if the strawperson version is out there influencing people, as it CONSTANTLY is! I get up every day and am like “Damn, there sure are a lot of straw people walking around, yapping on my TV, having podcasts everybody likes, writing books with names like ‘Twelve Rules for Life’ that my students read and ask me about,” and they are making a mess of things and I want someone to light them on fire.” I get why the strawman thing is a norm in philosophy but in public writing you go after whatever needs going after. There appear to be many people who think Kurzweil isn’t insane, and they need your help.

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PartTimeLady's avatar

Re: "A hatred, even a widely shared one, is still in need of justification": One of the things I have enjoyed about reading your work is the clarity and nuance you bring. I may share a general dislike of something, but not have distilled the WHY. Often, I read your work not knowing the subject matter at hand at all, and I become more curious about it, read more, and then go back to your essay and relish in the style (Oyler review in particular). I like being persuaded to think more about a subject, and that is what good writing does. Are people honestly complaining about a *single* essay in your collection? I believe it. They probably read short story collections expecting to like every single one, and ditto for episodes of a series, tracks on an album, etc. Woof. It is fantastic to find more than 2 amazing gems in a collection of *anything*, and I am always grateful when I do.

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