I didn’t claim that you were making it up, and if your best response is to call my opinion stupidity, take it to the member issues forum because it doesn’t belong on the main board and you know that.
Is that a shortcoming of your understanding of AE, or AE itself?
Who are “people”?
It is an appeal to authority. It is a logical fallacy. You knew that when you wrote it, and you wrote it anyway.
Do you believe there is any social use for reputation? And, if so, what?
Sorry, I’ll use your code words from now on. I meant to say: you’re very, very illogical.
Absolutely there is a use for reputation. Reputation (good and bad) helps us to estimate transaction costs.
That said, a reputation alone isn’t proof of anything in particular. It is at best a generalized indicator and only useful (in my opinion) if the person supporting the reputation bears the cost of the reputed one falling on their face. For someone to appeal to Wiggenstein or Rothbard, and bear no cost if Wiggenstein or Rothbard are wrong, then I (personally) don’t put a lot of stock in their opinion. Someone like Grayson, who is my friend, and has our friendship on the line, is less likely (unless he has stopped valuing our friendship, or misinterpreted it) to squander our situation by giving me casual and unfounded references.
However, it is obvious that if 1 billion fools believe something or in someone, that doesn’t make that idea or person any more true or false.
So instead of appealing to eminence and respect, share the argument or idea which is worthy of my attention and appreciation.
I wasn’t being illogical, but I am happy to see you make this progress. Your rhetorical skills have a lot of room to grow.
There’s no (objective) reality other than the one which is (subjectively) perceived as such.
Z.