In the realm of politics or economics, for instance, surely there ought to be some.
An obvious hypothesis: a substantial number of people on LW hold ideas about politics or economics that a substantial number of other people on LW think are roughly as rational as theism, we’re at least implicitly aware of this, and we avoid the topic because we think that our rationality is too weak to get past the “mind killer” effect at this point.
For instance: I suspect that most of economics is total bunk and think that libertarian political positions are tragically naive. There’s certainly a chance that I’m wrong, but I don’t expect that starting a debate over either topic on LW would produce useful results.
Theism is safe because it’s fairly obviously irrational, requires little specialized knowledge to see past, and we know we already mostly agree on it.
“libertarian political positions” are all over the map, so I have to agree (though I’m a libertarian: 100x100 on the WSPQ about that one. I wonder whether it wouldn’t be productive for a sceptic to pick out one or a few of the positions that are generally agreed on by economists (mattnewport’s list above is a reasonable starting point: free trade, price controls, open immigration; I’d add taxes reduce productivity) and start a discussion of what you think the weak points are.
edited to use proper LW linking
Of course, it would only work if one or a few people who disagree with the majority position were committed to making their best argument and sticking to the discussion even as they get (predictably) piled on by others. Perhaps we need a better way to manage such discussions by reducing the number of participants so a few people can have time to consider all of the points being made.
Well, I score 90x60, the left-wing side of Libertarian, so it’s not like I disagree strongly.
the positions that are generally agreed on by economists
...most of which I also agree with. It’s the points where economists frequently disagree that I am left to assume that most of them have no idea what they’re talking about (As for taxes, that’s a much more complicated question than just wanting “more” or “less” of them).
Of course, it would only work if one or a few people who disagree with the majority position were committed to making their best argument and sticking to the discussion even as they get (predictably) piled on by others.
And this is the real problem, because my views differ enough from most standard positions that I’d be arguing with a lot of people, but don’t differ enough to make it feel worth arguing because collecting and organizing supporting references properly is a lot of work.
An obvious hypothesis: a substantial number of people on LW hold ideas about politics or economics that a substantial number of other people on LW think are roughly as rational as theism, we’re at least implicitly aware of this, and we avoid the topic because we think that our rationality is too weak to get past the “mind killer” effect at this point.
For instance: I suspect that most of economics is total bunk and think that libertarian political positions are tragically naive. There’s certainly a chance that I’m wrong, but I don’t expect that starting a debate over either topic on LW would produce useful results.
Theism is safe because it’s fairly obviously irrational, requires little specialized knowledge to see past, and we know we already mostly agree on it.
“libertarian political positions” are all over the map, so I have to agree (though I’m a libertarian: 100x100 on the WSPQ about that one. I wonder whether it wouldn’t be productive for a sceptic to pick out one or a few of the positions that are generally agreed on by economists (mattnewport’s list above is a reasonable starting point: free trade, price controls, open immigration; I’d add taxes reduce productivity) and start a discussion of what you think the weak points are.
edited to use proper LW linking
Of course, it would only work if one or a few people who disagree with the majority position were committed to making their best argument and sticking to the discussion even as they get (predictably) piled on by others. Perhaps we need a better way to manage such discussions by reducing the number of participants so a few people can have time to consider all of the points being made.
Well, I score 90x60, the left-wing side of Libertarian, so it’s not like I disagree strongly.
...most of which I also agree with. It’s the points where economists frequently disagree that I am left to assume that most of them have no idea what they’re talking about (As for taxes, that’s a much more complicated question than just wanting “more” or “less” of them).
And this is the real problem, because my views differ enough from most standard positions that I’d be arguing with a lot of people, but don’t differ enough to make it feel worth arguing because collecting and organizing supporting references properly is a lot of work.