tweaking "Don't Negotiate"

... suppose I finally publish this Monday? (Publishing is an
emotionally-charged act, particularly since I probably want to promote to
/r/GenderCriticalGuys and Slate Star Culture War just afterwards.)  Today I'm
offline to work on—maybe even finish a first draft of??—"The Categories".

diff --git a/content/drafts/dont-negotiate-with-terrorist-memeplexes.md b/content/drafts/dont-negotiate-with-terrorist-memeplexes.md
index 58a0e76..a8d7055 100644 (file)
--- a/content/drafts/dont-negotiate-with-terrorist-memeplexes.md
+++ b/content/drafts/dont-negotiate-with-terrorist-memeplexes.md
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Status: draft
 >
 > —["Dane-Geld"](http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/dane_geld.html) by Rudyard Kipling
 
-There's this slogan meant to illustrate a principle in game theory: "Don't negotiate with terrorists." Imagine you're a political leader and terrorists have taken some of your citizens hostage and promise to release them if you meet their demands. You should refuse the deal, the argument goes, no matter how much you desperately want your people back safe, because agreeing would create an incentive for the terrorists to take more hostages: if you're the kind of agent that pays ransoms, blackmailing you is a reliable profit opportunity.
+There's this slogan meant to illustrate a principle in game theory: "We don't negotiate with terrorists." Imagine you're a political leader and terrorists have taken some of your citizens hostage and promise to release them if you meet their demands. You should refuse the deal, the argument goes, no matter how much you desperately want your people back safe, because agreeing would create an incentive for the terrorists to take more hostages: if you're the kind of agent that pays ransoms, blackmailing you is a reliable profit opportunity.
 
 ----
 
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ It _felt like_ I was talking to an AI designed to maximize the number of trans p
 
 The Orwellian horror here is not, of course, that someone in my extended social circle has opinions I disagree with.
 
-The Orwellian horror is that, had we been arguing in public, I'm not sure my incredibly smart and incredibly epistemologically sophisticated extended social circle would affirm that I wasn't wrong to want to talk about it (even if people might disagree about the facts). That, for educated liberals in the Current Year, appearing non-transphobic is more important than defending basic tenets of sanity that should hardly need to be stated, let alone defended, like _Words should mean things_, or _Knowledge is better than ignorance_.
+The Orwellian horror is that, had we been arguing in public, I didn't feel confident that my incredibly smart and incredibly epistemologically sophisticated extended social circle would back me up and affirm that I wasn't wrong to want to talk about it (even if people might disagree about the facts). That, for educated liberals in the Current Year, appearing non-transphobic is more important than defending basic tenets of sanity that should hardly need to be stated, let alone defended, like _Words should mean things_, or _Knowledge is better than ignorance_.
 
 Obviously I'm totally in favor of trans _people_ having access to the hormones and surgeries that they want, and having their preferred pronouns respected. That's just individual freedom and basic politeness.