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"you're just saying people are evil!" is a rather banal dodge of the entire thesis of the article, that the system is indeed ineffective and cruel. It's using rules-lawyerism to suppress a point that you find too uncomfortable to address with an actual argument.

Frankly this is sort of a recurring theme on HN, where people tend to lapse into meta-argument or tone argument as a substitute for substantive discussion. It's a matter of degree but at some point these tactics do become a logical fallacy, it's a very enticing way to shut down an argument that you can't directly counter.



> a rather banal dodge of the entire thesis of the article

But I wasn't addressing the article, I was addressing the comment.

> people tend to lapse into meta-argument or tone argument as a substitute for substantive discussion

Like what we're doing right now?




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