You seem to write exclusively about political topics. If your goal is to become more rational, this is probably a bad idea.
Your disagreement with Peterson seems to be mostly about the definition of the word “rights”. Based on your paraphrase, Peterson seems to define “having rights” roughly as being a part of a network of mutual obligations, and concludes that we could hardly have mutual obligations with animals; we could still choose to have unilateral obligations towards them, but that’s not the same thing. (Calling it slavery is the usual political exaggeration though.) Your definition of “rights” seems more like a list of things that should happen to you in a society that aspires to be nice, and does not depend on imaginary symmetry. Shortly: you two are using the same word for slightly different concepts.
FYI, I think Robby’s “Politics is Hard Mode” works better as a more up-to-date “politics is the mindkiller” referent. (edit: although it turns out Scott Alexander raised some interesting points that I somehow missed the last time I read the post)
You seem to write exclusively about political topics. If your goal is to become more rational, this is probably a bad idea.
Your disagreement with Peterson seems to be mostly about the definition of the word “rights”. Based on your paraphrase, Peterson seems to define “having rights” roughly as being a part of a network of mutual obligations, and concludes that we could hardly have mutual obligations with animals; we could still choose to have unilateral obligations towards them, but that’s not the same thing. (Calling it slavery is the usual political exaggeration though.) Your definition of “rights” seems more like a list of things that should happen to you in a society that aspires to be nice, and does not depend on imaginary symmetry. Shortly: you two are using the same word for slightly different concepts.
FYI, I think Robby’s “Politics is Hard Mode” works better as a more up-to-date “politics is the mindkiller” referent. (edit: although it turns out Scott Alexander raised some interesting points that I somehow missed the last time I read the post)