What I find so beautiful about these XKCD responses is that they acknowledge conceptual problems presented but then nevertheless carry on in the spirit of the question.
One problem I think I find in comment sections, besides the epidemic of uncharitable interpretation, is this unwillingness to entertain thought experiments intended to illustrate a point in an abstract way.
Resistance to the exercise comes out in various ways, like denying the practical plausibility of actually carrying out the hypothetical, to confidently dismissing them for unpredictable reasons. What's really going on is that people are expressing resistance to participating in a hypothetical, which shuts conversation down.
The ability to maintain and participate in hypotheticals without unconscious mechanisms that protest against the exercise is kind of a personal marker I use for measuring the health of an online community that is interested in ideas.
One problem I think I find in comment sections, besides the epidemic of uncharitable interpretation, is this unwillingness to entertain thought experiments intended to illustrate a point in an abstract way.
Resistance to the exercise comes out in various ways, like denying the practical plausibility of actually carrying out the hypothetical, to confidently dismissing them for unpredictable reasons. What's really going on is that people are expressing resistance to participating in a hypothetical, which shuts conversation down.
The ability to maintain and participate in hypotheticals without unconscious mechanisms that protest against the exercise is kind of a personal marker I use for measuring the health of an online community that is interested in ideas.