LessWrong (Curated & Popular) “Obligated to Respond” by Duncan Sabien (Inactive)
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Sep 16, 2025 Duncan Sabien, an insightful author known for his thoughts on social dynamics, dives into the complexities of communication in this discussion. He contrasts guess culture with ask culture, stressing the responsibilities we often overlook in social interactions. Duncan challenges the advice to simply ignore comments, arguing that our communication choices impact clarity and credibility. He also explores the emotional weight tied to responding in conversations, advocating for transparency to lighten these burdens.
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Silence Carries Social Meaning
- Silence after a challenge often signals inability to respond and damages perceived credibility.
- Duncan Sabien argues that ignoring comments has predictable social costs due to audience inference.
Cost Asymmetry Favors Bullshit
- Bullshit is cheap and often wins because rebuttal costs more than original claim.
- This dynamic explains why false or low-effort claims spread despite being wrong.
Miscontextualized Comments Reframe Posts
- Sabien gives a political example where criticism gets reframed as broad bigotry by a commenter.
- He shows how a single misreading can recontextualize the entire original post for future readers.
