Upvoted. I certainly don’t disagree with the point that some people got it right. The concern is more that the fraction that got the right objection seems to have been a small fraction of the people opposing entry.
I’m not so sure about that. Certainly if I reasoned from the positions of my own immediate social circle, I would get an unrepresentative picture of what people opposed in general believed, but I can say that those who could articulate clear and sensible reasons for not going to war which were vindicated by time were not in short supply, even at anti-war rallies where the actual talking points were more along the lines of “no blood for oil.”
those who could articulate clear and sensible reasons for not going to war which were vindicated by time were not in short supply
The main problem with motivated cognition isn’t that it fails to find true results, the main problems are that it can’t distinguish between true and false and is blind to contrary evidence.
Upvoted. I certainly don’t disagree with the point that some people got it right. The concern is more that the fraction that got the right objection seems to have been a small fraction of the people opposing entry.
I’m not so sure about that. Certainly if I reasoned from the positions of my own immediate social circle, I would get an unrepresentative picture of what people opposed in general believed, but I can say that those who could articulate clear and sensible reasons for not going to war which were vindicated by time were not in short supply, even at anti-war rallies where the actual talking points were more along the lines of “no blood for oil.”
The main problem with motivated cognition isn’t that it fails to find true results, the main problems are that it can’t distinguish between true and false and is blind to contrary evidence.