Thursday, January 24, 2013

Typical comments with typical answers

To pre-answer a few comments I often get:

Stupid comments:

You're wrong about X.

No, I'm not.

You're wrong about X, asshole.

No, I'm not. Fuck off.

I think you're wrong about X.
No, I'm not wrong, and I don't really care what you think; I care only about why you think it.

How dare you assert X?

Because I think it's true.  

How dare you fail to mention X!?

I don't know about it, I don't think it's true, or I don't think it's relevant in this context.

You failed to justify X.

Yes, I know. Sometimes I speculate, sometimes I summarize. This is a blog, not an academic journal. If you want to know why I think something, you need but ask.

You didn't justify X, so I don't have to justify to you my vehement assertion that you're wrong.

No, you don't have to justify anything at all to me. Indeed, you don't have to post here at all to not justify your opinion to me, so don't.

Mediocre comments:
You're right about X.

yay. I know. Do you have something to add?

Good comments:

Why do you think X?
You're wrong about X because of A, B, and C.
You failed to mention X, and it's important because of A, B, and C.
You're right about X, and it implies the surprising results of Y and Z.

2 comments:

  1. Don't you worry about X, let ME worry about X!

    (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5cAwTEEGNE)

    Sorry, couldn't resist. Thanks for blogging - you have a knack for writing about economics in an interesting and understandable way.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're welcome. Glad you enjoy the blog. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Please pick a handle or moniker for your comment. It's much easier to address someone by a name or pseudonym than simply "hey you". I have the option of requiring a "hard" identity, but I don't want to turn that on... yet.

With few exceptions, I will not respond or reply to anonymous comments, and I may delete them. I keep a copy of all comments; if you want the text of your comment to repost with something vaguely resembling an identity, email me.

No spam, pr0n, commercial advertising, insanity, lies, repetition or off-topic comments. Creationists, Global Warming deniers, anti-vaxers, Randians, and Libertarians are automatically presumed to be idiots; Christians and Muslims might get the benefit of the doubt, if I'm in a good mood.

See the Debate Flowchart for some basic rules.

Sourced factual corrections are always published and acknowledged.

I will respond or not respond to comments as the mood takes me. See my latest comment policy for details. I am not a pseudonomous-American: my real name is Larry.

Comments may be moderated from time to time. When I do moderate comments, anonymous comments are far more likely to be rejected.

I've already answered some typical comments.

I have jqMath enabled for the blog. If you have a dollar sign (\$) in your comment, put a \\ in front of it: \\\$, unless you want to include a formula in your comment.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.