Against the Expectation of "Steelmanning"

The idea that everyone should be ready, willing, able to prove their fair-mindedness and/or intellectual prowess by "steelmanning" their opponents' ideas at a moment's notice is deeply misguided.

“Steelmanning” seems to be a fairly recent addition to the vocabulary of argumentation. This 2012 blog post by Chana Messinger introduces it in a way that makes it sound like the term was Messinger’s invention. It probably wasn’t—this post on Less Wrong from 2011 makes it sound like it was already in circulation¹—but whatever its exact date of birth, it …