The point is rather that everyone’s views are not on a straight line between two points (though, vectors being neat, everyone’s views can be projected onto any line). Not on a line between two political views: complete the pattern: “Nobody is exactly on a line between two political views.”
I agree on how people should separately form their opinions on individual matters (or avoid politics altogether). I also agree with your statement: nobody is exactly on a line between two political views. However, most people fit so close to the line it would be accurate to identify them according to a one-dimensional scale.
The notable exceptions (e.g. libertarians, anarchists) can have their views accurately represented on a 2D plane, in which the X-axis represents economic freedom and the Y-axis represents represents personal freedom. A 2D plane is still negligibly small in the multi-dimensional field of politics.
Moldbug, as a contrast, is so unique in his views compared to the mainstream he needs tens of dimensions in order to accurately plot his views against other independently-minded people.
Given that political views can be arbitrary propositions, at some point thinking of them as embedded in n-dimensional space for some n stops being useful.
The point is rather that everyone’s views are not on a straight line between two points (though, vectors being neat, everyone’s views can be projected onto any line). Not on a line between two political views: complete the pattern: “Nobody is exactly on a line between two political views.”
I agree on how people should separately form their opinions on individual matters (or avoid politics altogether). I also agree with your statement: nobody is exactly on a line between two political views. However, most people fit so close to the line it would be accurate to identify them according to a one-dimensional scale.
The notable exceptions (e.g. libertarians, anarchists) can have their views accurately represented on a 2D plane, in which the X-axis represents economic freedom and the Y-axis represents represents personal freedom. A 2D plane is still negligibly small in the multi-dimensional field of politics.
Moldbug, as a contrast, is so unique in his views compared to the mainstream he needs tens of dimensions in order to accurately plot his views against other independently-minded people.
Honestly? I’m just mildly annoyed you non-sequiter’d my comment by doing reflexive pattern-completion for some guy you like and I don’t care about.
For how large n can this be generalized to “any n political views form a hyperplane on which no other political view held by any person exactly lies”?
d-1, at least.
Given that political views can be arbitrary propositions, at some point thinking of them as embedded in n-dimensional space for some n stops being useful.