[stevenh]

I attempted to list every plausible reason someone would ever invoke Hanlon's razor. My goal is partially to illustrate how ridiculous Hanlon's razor is.

Let me add another to the list. People like to invoke Hanlon's razor to signal how smart they are for knowing what Hanlon's razor is.

Can you provide one actual good reason to use Hanlon's razor, ever? You seem to think he had a good reason that I've missed. What is it?

[soneca]

Your perception of people repeating this line is very weird to me.

Hanlon's razor is not something you "invoke" to end a discussion. It is not a constitunional law. It is not a physical law. It is not even an informal guideline to guide arguments in the internet.

It is just a clever line you quote to represent your opinion. It is just like to say "occams razor", or "red herring", or any other expression that means something.

I think you take internet debate too serious and give way, but waaaaay too much importance to the words some random person chose to express their opinion.

I read the original sentence with exact same meaning of "i think it was incompetence, not theft".

Why to use this expression then? Because maybe they thought it was a shorter way to express the whole opinion.

You are reading too much into it

[sevenfive]

The difference is when you call something a "red herring" you also point out why. Or if you invoke "occam's razor" you simultaneously propose a simpler explanation. Whereas Hanlon's razor comments like the one above literally do nothing except say "Hanlon."

Anyway, I don't think me and GP are alone in being irrationally annoyed by this cliche.