Moderation and comment policy
Do not offer sympathy to the mentally ill. Tell them firmly, "I am not paid to listen to this drivel. You are a terminal fool."
‒William S. Burroughs
Look. I really like to argue about technical subjects. I like to be told I'm wrong because of X. That's because even if I don't think I'm wrong and argue back that X is incorrect at least I either now know that X exists or that "you're wrong because of X" is an argument I might encounter in the future. Like most humans, I make mistakes from time to time and sometimes X points out that mistake. I've actually taken down a post (placeholder is here) because a commenter (Tom Brown) pointed out an X and it made me realize I had approached the whole thing incorrectly.
But let me provide a list of helpful tips for arguing with me in comments:
Please do not leave off X. If you do, I will assume that I've just made you mad and you don't actually know what your problem is. The comment will probably be deleted unless I can think of a funny response.
If X is about physics or math, be aware that I have a PhD in physics and BS in mathematics (and many years working as an R&D scientist in industry). Like all humans, I will occasionally (frequently?) make a sign error (like here, again thanks to Tom Brown) or drop a factor of 2. However you should realize the prior probability that my expertise in these areas is greater than yours is almost 1. Don't tell me what you think of curve fitting, Taylor expansions, or effective field theory. Unless you say something extremely insightful or provide details, I will probably respond with snark.
If X is about something you yourself have never studied in school, please note that Dunning-Kruger effect is a hell of a drug. It's also my favorite thing to point out in responses to smarmy but ignorant comments. While sufferers of the effect are probably the least capable of determining their condition, at least give it a try.
Feel free to bug me on Twitter using your egg avatar, though.
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Original post (before 1 March 2017 update):
It is with some reluctance that I've decided to enable comment moderation due to abuse, ad hominem attacks, and terminal fools.
Since this is my blog, I can do what I want. And since I'm an elitist bastard, I'm going to go a bit further than others do and ban stupid comments, failures of reading comprehension, and the rather baffling inability to Google something before you post (you're on the Internet already).
Additionally, all pro-"Post Keynesian" comments are also banned. This school of thought apparently consists of terminal fools. The determination of Post Keynesianism will be made via a very sophisticated machine learning algorithm so it might be some time before sufficient data has been accumulated. Please stand by.
Furthermore, out of spite, I am now a Market Monetarist. While they are also wrong, they are a much better class of people.
They also don't think economics is "just accounting".
...
Update 12 March 2016: I think I may just turn moderation off and on as it becomes necessary e.g. because I say something that is correct but inflammatory towards a particular viewpoint.
Update 1 March 2017: I have turned off anonymous commenting. It was being abused by a knowledge-impervious dolt suffering from Dunning-Kruger. In general, the quality of comments from anonymous commenters has declined significantly over the past few years. Requiring Open ID at least lets me figure out which anonymous commenters are which and block them accordingly. I also rewrote the opening and will place a link here on the side bar.