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Your reply got flagged, I’m curious whether that was auto or human. I was talking with my daughter last night about ambiguity in speech and interpretation last

Your reply got flagged, I’m curious whether that was auto or human. I was talking with my daughter last night about ambiguity in speech and interpretation last night, and about the space of true things well intentioned people avoid, because bad faith actors with an unspoken partisan agenda use that space as area of tenuous ambiguity into which they implausibly retreat when challenged on the hideous ideas they are trying to ship. I read your comment as a reflection in the hideous cruelty of life, anyone studying biology or medicine beyond high school confronts the cold indifferent ugliness of nature, and the enormity and absurdity of the task we have to build a kind compassionate society on this substrate. But once you factor in ambiguity, your comment keyword matches the crypto-misogyny leading comments of trolls claiming to know something about social Darwinism. Perhaps others read your comment in that light. On the whole I enjoy how this site is moderated, I think it’s close to optimum, but general optimization means specifics are sacrificed, and this is one where I would like to have participated in a quite backstage conversation to understand the perspective of the participants

tryonenow 5y ago
I'm completely surprised by the negative reaction to my comment. I think people are misinterpreting my use of the word hacker, and I don't even mean to imply that God exists - only that the universe is intricately clever and whether by intent or by emergence this frameshift exploit on which some viruses rely for reproduction is an absolutely brilliant trick. My comment was made in reverence. Or perhaps it's the implication of intelligent design that upset the downvoters/flaggers? >I read your comment as a reflection in the hideous cruelty of life, anyone studying biology or medicine beyond high school confronts the cold indifferent ugliness of nature Perhaps my comment came off callously then. I made no value judgement, it was only the design that I meant to describe. Nuclear weapons are terrible things, but they are still technical works of art.

tryonenow 5y ago

I'm completely surprised by the negative reaction to my comment. I think people are misinterpreting my use of the word hacker, and I don't even mean to imply that God exists - only that the universe is intricately clever and whether by intent or by emergence this frameshift exploit on which some viruses rely for reproduction is an absolutely brilliant trick. My comment was made in reverence. Or perhaps it's the implication of intelligent design that upset the downvoters/flaggers? >I read your comment as a reflection in the hideous cruelty of life, anyone studying biology or medicine beyond high school confronts the cold indifferent ugliness of nature Perhaps my comment came off callously then. I made no value judgement, it was only the design that I meant to describe. Nuclear weapons are terrible things, but they are still technical works of art.