Looks like you anticipated Scott Adams' "High Ground Maneuver" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1530274 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1530274) in that

Looks like you anticipated Scott Adams' "High Ground Maneuver" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1530274 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1530274) in that essay - "One way to do this is to ratchet the debate up one level of abstraction."