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Comment by Gibbon1 | Hacker News Reader

I like how you bagged on him for telling the truth.

If you possess the truth, it's even more important not to use it as a weapon, because doing so will only alienate the readers who possess less truth than you do. No one is convinced by name-calling or other outright attack, and truth is too precious to be burned this way.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

>will only alienate

>No one is convinced

Those are some pretty broad generalizations!

I've certainly been convinced on various topics by people who were correct and also rude about it.

Do you think laywers and police are always nice when trying to get to the truth? Have you ever seen the movie Erin Brockovich, or read about the events that inspired it? Would she have had the same results while being polite the entire time?

Rude comments may break forum rules, sure. But I'm not sure sweeping generalizations about efficacy, such as the above, are needed.

Everything I say here is scoped to the relatively trivial context of an internet forum. You're talking about someone taking a principled stand at personal peril. Those are not comparable situations.

I don't think what I said is so controversial. Cheap name-calling doesn't have good effects on discussion here, and HN readers whose minds might be open to a thoughtful argument are turned off by it.

I think what triggered you is you're in the denialist camp here.

Are you?

It always feels like the mods are against you. You can be sure the other side feels just the same.

That I do not care about.

But I'll assume the answer to my question is yes.

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