4 ms·
Steelmanning is one of the ideas that sounds good in principle, but is usually a disaster in practice. In practice the only way I've ever seen it used was by bu
by yk 4y ago
Steelmanning is one of the ideas that sounds good in principle, but is usually a disaster in practice. In practice the only way I've ever seen it used was by building a straw man and then very loudly proclaiming that they're "steelmanning" while exploiting the second most stupid design flaw of the straw man.
Closely related, point two "Help to fix your opponents argument," apart from being inherently escalatory, there is a pretty good chance that your opponent just made the argument like it is supposed to be and you're just not understanding it.
- ch4s3 4y agoIf your point here is that arguing against the best version of someone's argument leads you to tackle their more credible claims, then I don't see the problem. It sounds like at worst, that might elevate a discussion a bit. I've seen this approach in some oxford style debates and thought it made the debate better, as a viewer.