I think it would be more-graceful of you to just admit that it is possible that there may be more than one reason for people to be in terror of the end of the world, and likewise qualify your other claims to certainty and universality.
That’s the main point of what gjm wrote. I’m sympathetic to the view you’re trying to communicate, Valentine; but you used words that claim that what you say is absolute, immutable truth, and that’s the worst mind-killer of all. Everything you wrote just above seems to me to be just equivocation trying to deny that technical yet critical point.
I understand that you think that’s just a quibble, but it really, really isn’t. Claiming privileged access to absolute truth on LessWrong is like using the N-word in a speech to the NAACP. It would do no harm to what you wanted to say to use phrases like “many people” or even “most people” instead of the implicit “all people”, and it would eliminate a lot of pushback.
I think it would be more-graceful of you to just admit that it is possible that there may be more than one reason for people to be in terror of the end of the world, and likewise qualify your other claims to certainty and universality.
That’s the main point of what gjm wrote. I’m sympathetic to the view you’re trying to communicate, Valentine; but you used words that claim that what you say is absolute, immutable truth, and that’s the worst mind-killer of all. Everything you wrote just above seems to me to be just equivocation trying to deny that technical yet critical point.
I understand that you think that’s just a quibble, but it really, really isn’t. Claiming privileged access to absolute truth on LessWrong is like using the N-word in a speech to the NAACP. It would do no harm to what you wanted to say to use phrases like “many people” or even “most people” instead of the implicit “all people”, and it would eliminate a lot of pushback.