OP argued that self-deception occurs even if your brain remains unbroken. I would characterize “not breaking my brain” as allowing my prior belief about the book’s biasedness to make a difference in my posterior confidence of the book’s thesis. In that case the book might be arbitrarily convincing; but I might start with an arbitrarily high confidence that the book is biased, and then it boils down to an ordinary Bayesian tug o’ war, and Yvain’s comment applies.
On the other hand, I’d view a brain-breaking book as a “press X to self-modify to devout Y-believer” button. If I know the book is such, I decide not to read it. If I’m ignorant of the book’s nature, and I read it, then I’m screwed.
OP argued that self-deception occurs even if your brain remains unbroken. I would characterize “not breaking my brain” as allowing my prior belief about the book’s biasedness to make a difference in my posterior confidence of the book’s thesis. In that case the book might be arbitrarily convincing; but I might start with an arbitrarily high confidence that the book is biased, and then it boils down to an ordinary Bayesian tug o’ war, and Yvain’s comment applies.
On the other hand, I’d view a brain-breaking book as a “press X to self-modify to devout Y-believer” button. If I know the book is such, I decide not to read it. If I’m ignorant of the book’s nature, and I read it, then I’m screwed.