I do. As a rule of thumb, anyone booming the cause of truth, rationality, or common sense is usually trying to smuggle some particular belief in unargued on the back of it. (I’ve been around LW long enough that that prior is no longer relevant for this particular case. It does have an agenda, but one that is explicitly argued for.)
As well, anyone booing truth, rationality, or common sense, is usually trying to do the same, just by different means.
Voted up because it’s intriguing that saying anything in favor of or against truth, rationality, or common sense is a danger sign.
That’s plausible, it’s just that my mind doesn’t work that way. My filter is “is that interesting and plausible?” rather than “what might they be up to?”.
Wait a minute, you’re saying that talking about truth or rationality at all is suspicious? That’d be a pity. But now I understand the reactions of some of my acquaintances.
My mother, for instance often say that my philosophical views stems from a desire to control everything, or even plain fear (of death? of the unknown?). It looks like personal attacks (by dissolving the personal, historical causes of my beliefs, she dismisses the belief itself), but now I’m wondering if they’re only rationalization for the bottom line “those beliefs are weird, and scary, and authoritarian and cold, and I don’t like them”.
I suspect a lot of people do, but how strong it is varies. I would take a look before, with an eye out for crankish or biased tendencies. Of course by the time I got here I knew this was legit.
A possible way to defuse this would be to add a second tagline that motivates understanding rationality for the purposes of building it. Then the agenda becomes clearer: yes, it really is rationality, in itself, for a specific purpose.
Any opinions about what proportion of people have an automatic “what’s the agenda?” filter?
I do. As a rule of thumb, anyone booming the cause of truth, rationality, or common sense is usually trying to smuggle some particular belief in unargued on the back of it. (I’ve been around LW long enough that that prior is no longer relevant for this particular case. It does have an agenda, but one that is explicitly argued for.)
As well, anyone booing truth, rationality, or common sense, is usually trying to do the same, just by different means.
Voted up because it’s intriguing that saying anything in favor of or against truth, rationality, or common sense is a danger sign.
That’s plausible, it’s just that my mind doesn’t work that way. My filter is “is that interesting and plausible?” rather than “what might they be up to?”.
Wait a minute, you’re saying that talking about truth or rationality at all is suspicious? That’d be a pity. But now I understand the reactions of some of my acquaintances.
My mother, for instance often say that my philosophical views stems from a desire to control everything, or even plain fear (of death? of the unknown?). It looks like personal attacks (by dissolving the personal, historical causes of my beliefs, she dismisses the belief itself), but now I’m wondering if they’re only rationalization for the bottom line “those beliefs are weird, and scary, and authoritarian and cold, and I don’t like them”.
I suspect a lot of people do, but how strong it is varies. I would take a look before, with an eye out for crankish or biased tendencies. Of course by the time I got here I knew this was legit.
A possible way to defuse this would be to add a second tagline that motivates understanding rationality for the purposes of building it. Then the agenda becomes clearer: yes, it really is rationality, in itself, for a specific purpose.