1) they will believe false things (which is bad for its own sake) 2) they will do harm to others due to false beliefs 3) harm will come to them because of their false beliefs 4) they will become alienated from you because of your disagreements with each other 5) something else?
It seems like these different possibilities would suggest different mitigations. For example, if the threat model is that they just adopt the dominant ideology around them (which happens to be false on many points), then that results in them having false beliefs (#1), but may not cause any harm to come to them from it (#3) (and may even be to their benefit, in some ways).
Similarly, depending on whether you care more about #1 or #4, you may try harder to correct their false ideas, or to establish a norm for your relationship that it’s fine to disagree with each other. (Though I suspect that, generally speaking, efforts that tend to produce a healthy relationship will also tend to produce true beliefs, in the long run.)
For example, if the threat model is that they just adopt the dominant ideology around them (which happens to be false on many points), then that results in them having false beliefs (#1), but may not cause any harm to come to them from it (#3) (and may even be to their benefit, in some ways).
Many Communist true believers in China met terrible ends as waves of “political movements” swept through the country after the CCP takeover, and pitted one group against another, all vying to be the most “revolutionary”. (One of my great-grandparents could have escaped but stayed in China because he was friends with a number of high-level Communists and believed in their cause. He ended up committing suicide when his friends lost power to other factions and the government turned on him.)
More generally, ideology can change so quickly that it’s very difficult to follow it closely enough to stay safe, and even if you did follow the dominant ideology perfectly you’re still vulnerable to the next “vanguard” who pushes the ideology in a new direction in order to take power. I think if “adopt the dominant ideology” is sensible as a defensive strategy for living in some society, you’d still really want to avoid getting indoctrinated into being a true believer, so you can apply rational analysis to the political struggles that will inevitably follow.
They will “waste their life”, for both the real opportunity cost and the potential regret they might feel if they realize the error later in life.
My own regret in knowing that they’ve been indoctrinated into believing wrong things (or into having unreasonable certainty about potentially wrong things), when I probably could have done something to prevent that.
Their views making family life difficult. (E.g., if they were to secretly record family conversations and post them on social media as examples of wrongthink, like some kids have done.)
Can’t really think of any mitigations for these aside from trying not to let them get indoctrinated in the first place...
Are you most concerned that:
1) they will believe false things (which is bad for its own sake)
2) they will do harm to others due to false beliefs
3) harm will come to them because of their false beliefs
4) they will become alienated from you because of your disagreements with each other
5) something else?
It seems like these different possibilities would suggest different mitigations. For example, if the threat model is that they just adopt the dominant ideology around them (which happens to be false on many points), then that results in them having false beliefs (#1), but may not cause any harm to come to them from it (#3) (and may even be to their benefit, in some ways).
Similarly, depending on whether you care more about #1 or #4, you may try harder to correct their false ideas, or to establish a norm for your relationship that it’s fine to disagree with each other. (Though I suspect that, generally speaking, efforts that tend to produce a healthy relationship will also tend to produce true beliefs, in the long run.)
I should also address this part:
Many Communist true believers in China met terrible ends as waves of “political movements” swept through the country after the CCP takeover, and pitted one group against another, all vying to be the most “revolutionary”. (One of my great-grandparents could have escaped but stayed in China because he was friends with a number of high-level Communists and believed in their cause. He ended up committing suicide when his friends lost power to other factions and the government turned on him.)
More generally, ideology can change so quickly that it’s very difficult to follow it closely enough to stay safe, and even if you did follow the dominant ideology perfectly you’re still vulnerable to the next “vanguard” who pushes the ideology in a new direction in order to take power. I think if “adopt the dominant ideology” is sensible as a defensive strategy for living in some society, you’d still really want to avoid getting indoctrinated into being a true believer, so you can apply rational analysis to the political struggles that will inevitably follow.
I guess I’m worried about
They will “waste their life”, for both the real opportunity cost and the potential regret they might feel if they realize the error later in life.
My own regret in knowing that they’ve been indoctrinated into believing wrong things (or into having unreasonable certainty about potentially wrong things), when I probably could have done something to prevent that.
Their views making family life difficult. (E.g., if they were to secretly record family conversations and post them on social media as examples of wrongthink, like some kids have done.)
Can’t really think of any mitigations for these aside from trying not to let them get indoctrinated in the first place...