Every couple of weeks, I see some argument on the internet that makes me think about interpretation matrices and how much nicer the world would be if everybody had this mental handle. Towards that end, let me relay it to you:
Basically any nontrivial statement about the real world contains multiple words with multiple meanings, where the truth value of the statement depends strongly on which set of meanings you choose. For example, take this statement: "free trade benefits everyone."
(Please, please, stay with me up here on the meta level, don’t parachute down to join your brothers-in-arms on the cratered, gore-slick object level. I’d choose an uncontroversial example instead, but I think the controversy is unfortunately necessary for grounding this idea.)
If we generously assume that we all agree what "free trade" is, then there are just two "axes" of interpretation:
What does "benefit" mean? Does it mean being better off, or does it mean having any positive effect, even one outweighed by negative effect? (If somebody gives me a box of free stuff, but it turns out to contain a couple of bedbugs which infest my house, did giving me the box still “benefit” me because I got an old Nintendo and a cast-iron pan?)
What does "everyone" mean? Does it mean literally every single person, or does it mean, just, like... people-in-general, in some "aggregate utility" sense? (If I clean up some litter, have I helped "everyone," or just the locals?)
(I'm sure you could think of more points along each of these axes, making there be 3x3 or 10x17 possibilities, but for illustration's sake let's keep it to a simple 2x2.)
Since there are only two axes here, we can make a grid (stolen from linked post):
Note that these are all distinct statements. You probably think at least one is obviously [true/false], and at least one is controversial. That means, if you mistake which square somebody is taking a stance on, they are likely to look flabbergastingly dumb.
Another example: "eugenics” “works” has an enormous interpretation matrix where some cells represent trivialities like "some traits are somewhat heritable," and others mean "we should enforce compulsory sterilization for undesirables." Because the matrix is large, you will probably be wrong when you try to guess which cell somebody is talking about (citations; twitter cw), and then the things they say will sound... loony.
