Salon clearly publishes such an article with the purpose of feelig good about discrediting Trump and his supporters. Readers feel good knowing the author scores a point against Trump and his supporters.
If so, then Salon’s editors and those readers are concerned with something other than truth, and maybe Gleb_Tsipursky should feel a little icky about being associated with them. None of that, though, is any kind of justification for the original claim that GT’s article was engaging in Bulverism and therefore irrational.
If so, then Salon’s editors and those readers are concerned with something other than truth, and maybe Gleb_Tsipursky should feel a little icky about being associated with them.
There are very few people who are just concerned with truth and don’t have any other interests.
Given that Gleb speaks of mindkillers in the title of this question he’s also well aware that tribal loyalities factor into equation.
The whole point of his article is that the media isn’t full of Trump stories because of a desire to inform but because that’s a way to drive attention and have engaging stories that readers want to read.
No, the whole (explicitly stated) point of his article is that we are apt to give more attention to things with a strong emotional appeal even when by any reasonable criterion they don’t deserve it. G.T. hopes that Salon readers will find Trump a nice vivid example of this, and that this will help them grasp what he wants to say about cognitive biases.
This wouldn’t work well for a politically conservative audience that gets upset at anything that can be interpreted as hostile to Team Red. (This seems to me to be nicely illustrated by the folks on LW, including your good self, who seem to find it inconceivable that anyone would write such an article with any purpose other than to attack Team Red.)
Maybe it also doesn’t work for an audience that’s mostly playing for the other team, for an equal and opposite reason: maybe they are likely just to round it off to “yes, Trump is awful and science proves it; go Team Blue!” and be so consumed with feelings of warm fuzziness that they pay no attention to the actual content. That would be a genuine problem. (The comments on the Salon article suggest to me that this happens to some but not all Team Blue readers.)
If Gleb wanted to get Salon to publish a standard article on rationality, Salon likely wouldn’t simply publish the article.
On the other hand Salon is interested in publishing an article analysing Trump with Science_TM.
This seems to me to be nicely illustrated by the folks on LW, including your good self, who seem to find it inconceivable that anyone would write such an article with any purpose other than to attack Team Red.)
I don’t believe that the article has a single purpose, so if you are talking about me you are projecting something.
There are varieties of error other than projection. Anyway: If you acknowledge that Gleb’s purpose was to publish an article about bias and rationality and psychology that would get Salon’s readers to think about those things and learn a little (I can’t tell: do you?) then I am not sure what point you’re intending to make here and why you think it needs making.
Gleb wants to publish an article about bias and rationality. Salon’s readers like to read an article trashing Trump and Salon is happy to produce such an article for them.
Yeah, sure, very possible. So Gleb has got an article into Salon that uses mindkill-y topics as a hook to get readers thinking and learning about bias and rationality. Which, er, is what he said at the outset was the idea.
But it sounds—maybe I’m misreading your tone? -- as if you consider that there’s a problem here. What is it?
Salon clearly publishes such an article with the purpose of feelig good about discrediting Trump and his supporters. Readers feel good knowing the author scores a point against Trump and his supporters.
If so, then Salon’s editors and those readers are concerned with something other than truth, and maybe Gleb_Tsipursky should feel a little icky about being associated with them. None of that, though, is any kind of justification for the original claim that GT’s article was engaging in Bulverism and therefore irrational.
There are very few people who are just concerned with truth and don’t have any other interests.
Given that Gleb speaks of mindkillers in the title of this question he’s also well aware that tribal loyalities factor into equation.
The whole point of his article is that the media isn’t full of Trump stories because of a desire to inform but because that’s a way to drive attention and have engaging stories that readers want to read.
No, the whole (explicitly stated) point of his article is that we are apt to give more attention to things with a strong emotional appeal even when by any reasonable criterion they don’t deserve it. G.T. hopes that Salon readers will find Trump a nice vivid example of this, and that this will help them grasp what he wants to say about cognitive biases.
This wouldn’t work well for a politically conservative audience that gets upset at anything that can be interpreted as hostile to Team Red. (This seems to me to be nicely illustrated by the folks on LW, including your good self, who seem to find it inconceivable that anyone would write such an article with any purpose other than to attack Team Red.)
Maybe it also doesn’t work for an audience that’s mostly playing for the other team, for an equal and opposite reason: maybe they are likely just to round it off to “yes, Trump is awful and science proves it; go Team Blue!” and be so consumed with feelings of warm fuzziness that they pay no attention to the actual content. That would be a genuine problem. (The comments on the Salon article suggest to me that this happens to some but not all Team Blue readers.)
If Gleb wanted to get Salon to publish a standard article on rationality, Salon likely wouldn’t simply publish the article. On the other hand Salon is interested in publishing an article analysing Trump with Science_TM.
I don’t believe that the article has a single purpose, so if you are talking about me you are projecting something.
There are varieties of error other than projection. Anyway: If you acknowledge that Gleb’s purpose was to publish an article about bias and rationality and psychology that would get Salon’s readers to think about those things and learn a little (I can’t tell: do you?) then I am not sure what point you’re intending to make here and why you think it needs making.
Gleb wants to publish an article about bias and rationality.
Salon’s readers like to read an article trashing Trump and Salon is happy to produce such an article for them.
Yeah, sure, very possible. So Gleb has got an article into Salon that uses mindkill-y topics as a hook to get readers thinking and learning about bias and rationality. Which, er, is what he said at the outset was the idea.
But it sounds—maybe I’m misreading your tone? -- as if you consider that there’s a problem here. What is it?