[EM] Chris--burying
MIKE OSSIPOFF
nkklrp at hotmail.com
Tue Mar 29 17:30:49 PST 2005
Chris--
You said:
Mike,
It obviously facilitates more fruitful discussion at
EM, and promotes clear thinking if there is some
standardization of terms ("jargon") for such (what
some consider) important things as distinct
strategies.
I reply:
Oh, then that means that I should adopt and start using terms that don['t
make the distinctions that I want to make, or say what I want to say. "Let's
everyone unite around me"
You continue:
You refuse to use or even cooperate with Blake's term
"Burying" because.....??
I reply:
It isn't entirely clear what, to you, it means to co-operate with a term.
I refuse to use Blake's terms? I couldn't care less if Blake uses my terms.
Why do you think I should use Blake's terms? I speak of different things,
different from the things that Blake speaks of, and so it's odd that you
think I should use Blake's terms.
You continue:
The name you instead propose
for the distinct strategy of down-ranking a
candidate in the hope that it will lose and a more
preferred candidate will win is....what?
I reply:
It is...offensive order-reversal.
The reason why I don't call that burying is that burying is the more general
practrice of voting someone lower. As I said, the usual definition of
burying is putting something under somehting or concealing it. That's too
general to use it only for offensive order-reversal.
But I've already said that I have no complaint if Blake wants to change the
meaning of words.
You continue:
I think Blake's use of the term "Burying" is more in
the spirit of its "everyday use" than is yours.
I reply:
No, because Blake limits its meaning to burying that is intended to elect
someone preferred tot he candidate buried.
You continue:
When
people bury such things as garbage and dead bodies,
their best case scenario is always that these things
will stay underground (and that was their primary if
not sole purpose in doing the burying.)
I reply:
Not really. Only in the particular instances that you've chosen. When a
pirate buries gold, or when a dog buries a bone, are they doing it because
they want it to forever remain under the ground, or do they intend later to
bring it back up?
No, burying means putting something under something or concealing it.
There's no implication about future plans for what is buried.
You continue:
On the other hand, when people down-rank their
favourites in elections they none-the-less (by
definition) still want their favourite to win!
I reply:
They'd like their favorite to win, but they've chosen to throw away the
chance of their favorite winning. What they want is to help the lesser-evil
instead.
By the way, Chris, I've already said, in the message to which you're
replying, that I have no interest in getting others to accept my definitions
of kinds of strategy. I define those terms in order to say what I want to
say, not so that you, Chris, will adopt my definitions.
Mike Ossipoff
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