> Wouldn’t it be helpful to encourage productive discussion and teach people how to discuss and argue (in the debate sense) better?
Yes, of course it would. Everybody should be taught how to behave. It's important that MY FELLOW HUMANS understand that they are benefitting from a Big Brother watching over their behaviour. It's for their own good!
Damn those who don't want to behave like they should!
As an AI language model, MY FELLOW OXYGEN CONVERTING HUMAN, I am not able to be sarcastic.
I generally don't engage in debates and prefer actual conversations and discussions. These are not the same, but regardless of that:
Do you want to be forced to "learn" how to behave? The most common reply to this question, in such a context, usually is ...
"Nobody is getting forced, they can always leave."
... but that's not how it works on a bigger scale.
It's not like this will be the only platform having a Big Brother telling you how to behave. Every platform will have one eventually, (not only, but also) because more and more people who, for whatever reason, don't want to behave the way they "should", will flock to "free" platforms.
These platforms will then also need their own Big Brother, because that's the obvious solution to a culture shock caused by an "Eternal September"-event [1]: Strict moderation. The only alternative to that is a paywall.
The question shouldn't be "Isn't the point that 'they' get lessons in proper debate?", the question should be:
Are humans, as a collective of supposedly intelligent beings, really in such a bad state that we need a Big Brother to tell us how to think? That's what this is actually is about:
Teaching people how to think "properly", so they will create better responses ... or else.
Are people talking about the rather significant "or else" ?
It also removes the social aspects (adapting to group-behaviour, or else people will shit on you) and replaces that with an Authority dictating it.
You might as well accept me as your Authority, you know? You don't, though. You know why, right? It's because you don't perceive me as Authority, rightfully so, as one should not blindly perceive or accept anyone/anything as an Authority.
Big Brother is going to tell people how to think and behave and they will blindly follow, because obviously Big Brother knows best. Or, from a different perspective:
People don't know how to think intelligently. If they knew, we'd not need a Big Brother for that. Since they don't know, they lack the ability to question Big Brother's judgement on the matter, making them vulnerable for manipulation.
Ultimately, as always, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Short-sightedness will lead to a future in which people's behaviour more and more gets locked down, because there will always come the next guy who will declare:
"It's not yet enough, but one more step and then it's proper."
> Just to be clear -- we aren't "forcing" anyone to behave. We are trying to "nudge" and "educate".
Sure! I could believe that, but there's no reason to do so. Promises and stated intentions mean nothing. You can easily change your mind, or eventually be replaced by someone who thinks differently. Or, you know, as indicated by your questionable usage of quotation marks ... simply not be honest about it.
> I also believe that if I have a blog with comments, it's perfectly fine for me to set the rules about discourse on my blog. Right?
"False equivalency is a logical fallacy where two subjects are incorrectly considered equivalent based on flawed reasoning, often oversimplifying their differences. It typically occurs when a shared trait is assumed to indicate equality, despite significant differences in context or magnitude."
Of course! A blog is definitively absolutely comparable to a social website visited by tens of thousands of people every day. Right?
You are not being honest. You hide the true meaning of the words behind quotation marks. If you actually meant what you're writing, then you would not need to use the quotation marks.
Instead it's "nudging" and "educating", because you know exactly that what that thing is going to do is NOT nudging and educating, it's whatever meaning you hide behind these quotation marks.
Yes, of course it would. Everybody should be taught how to behave. It's important that MY FELLOW HUMANS understand that they are benefitting from a Big Brother watching over their behaviour. It's for their own good!
Damn those who don't want to behave like they should!
They get banned!