Pulling the Rope Sideways: Empirical Test Results

I have actually tried this, not in tug-of-war, but with moving a stuck car (one end affixed to car, one end to a tree or lamppost or something). In that situation, where the objects aren't actively adjusting to thwart you, it works quite well!

So a worked example:

Say a city has an inadequate budget. There is a movement pro more property tax, and a movement against increasing property tax.

Assume you are a senior partner in the city's largest law firm with a lot of friends. (The kind of person who gets any voice at all in this kind of politics)

You could join the anti movement, and ask for outright tax rates of zero for some class. Such as senior citizens, families with young children, point is you are trying to change the movement from "generally low taxes" to "lower taxes a lot for a subgroup I am championing". Simply asking for less taxes is just pulling with the group not sideways.

You could join the pro movement and ask for a variation on Georgism. Put all the increase into a tax on the land itself. Outraged empty lot (in downtown) owners come out to stop you. Simply asking for more taxes is pulling with the group not sideways.

Joining a group wanting to restrict AI progress and asking for a 30 year ban on any improvements or a ban on all technology and a reversion to the stone age is just pulling with the group. Adding a new dimension like a Blockchain record of GPU cluster utilization (making it more difficult for covert ASIs to exist undetected) would be adding a new dimension consistent with the groups goals.

Joining a pro AI group and asking for massive subsidies to chip manufacturers would be pulling with the groups goals. Asking the NIH to start a series of research grants on human tissue with cat fur genes edited in would be adding a new dimension consistent with the groups goals.

I wonder what kind of "tug" has the most effect. Do you ask for something reasonable that is within the Overton window of things a rational person might request, or just demand the earth and expect to get a small concession in reality.

Part of the problem here is you can't be reasonable. You can't join the anti property tax group and say the city actually is underfunded compared to other cities, even if thats reality. You can't join the anti AI group and say GPT-4 is just so stupid adding 10 times the compute will still be deeply subhuman and cite your evidence. (Not claiming the latter just bioanchors says this is true, and generally "last 10 percent" problems can take logarithmically more effort, compute than the 90 percent case)

This was some kind of interesting update for me, but feels incomplete for the post to not at least mentioning the followup theory, which is "there may be forces that nudge the two most obvious sides to be equal, such that if you join one side another person is likely to join the opposing side to cancel you out, but, those forces don't apply as much to the side"

(I realize this is a vague metaphor in the first place, but, as long as you're overthinking a metaphor, do it thoroughly!)

Here's a thought experiment to illuminate what I expect you're seeing:

You're pulling a rope south against a group of people pulling the rope north. The group in front of you now starts pulling towards the rope north north west. What do you do? Do you A) begin to side step west so that you can continue to pull due south, attempting to rotate the rope from it's current direction, or B) shift your weight so that you don't get pulled sideways, and continue to pull against the rope which now means pulling somewhat easterly? 

Now imagine you're pulling a rope south against a group of people pulling the rope north. Only this time, the group behind you begins pulling the rope south south west. Do you A) shift your weight as as to retain your position on the ground and pull the rope against both groups of people, attempting to kink the rope, or do you B) side step to maintain your position along the line, and continue to pull along the rope which now means pulling somewhat westerly?

I'm guessing that people are going to choose B and B, which means that the middle is the worst position to pull from, since you cause everyone to automatically and unthinkingly oppose you. If you pull from the rear instead, and have people on the back of each team pulling to the same side, I bet you'll get different results.

I just assumed this works without even questioning it. ^^ Can you explain more concretely what you did? When I simulate this in my mind, I'm able to pull the rope sideways as long as there are less than three people pulling the rope at each side. They are also not allowed to counteract my pulling more than they would by default without my pulling, right?