“Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. But if rationalism doesn’t at least offer something comparable to other options, many people won’t even try.”
So why should we want to attract such people?
We know why cult groups usually try to attract as many people as possible: they’re just raw material to them, explicitly or implicitly.
How is it to our benefit to adopt an r-strategy, rather than a K?
Among other reasons, because mass opinion often influences decisions, e.g. politics, in ways that impact everyone, including us. The greater the average rationality of the masses, the better those decisions are likely to be.
Rational arguments, being restricted to sanity, are un-optimized for swaying masses for political gain.
It’s not a good idea to fight irrationality’s strengths with rationality’s weaknesses.
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“Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. But if rationalism doesn’t at least offer something comparable to other options, many people won’t even try.”
So why should we want to attract such people?
We know why cult groups usually try to attract as many people as possible: they’re just raw material to them, explicitly or implicitly.
How is it to our benefit to adopt an r-strategy, rather than a K?
Among other reasons, because mass opinion often influences decisions, e.g. politics, in ways that impact everyone, including us. The greater the average rationality of the masses, the better those decisions are likely to be.
Rational arguments, being restricted to sanity, are un-optimized for swaying masses for political gain.
It’s not a good idea to fight irrationality’s strengths with rationality’s weaknesses.