Before I respond to the rest of your comment, I want to point out that the second set of bullet points you list do not have anything at all to do with what I am talking about. You see that, yes?
You stated,
The assumption of progress, too, is deeply ingrained (the OP is hardly making a novel or surprising argument, for instance).
I interpreted the assumption of progress as referring to one of these two possibilities,
The world has gotten better
The world will get better in the future
This makes a lot of sense considering Jason Crawford’s other posts.
My first bullet point addresses the first interpretation. It points out that the assumption of progress is not “deeply ingrained” as you claimed. It seems more that about half of people, or less, believe that the world has gotten better.
My other two bullet points address the second interpretation of the assumption of progress.
Neither of those interpretations are (a) what I meant, nor (b) entailed by the OP.
There are also several other serious problems with the points you made, having to do with their provenance, the possibility of sensibly interpreting them, etc.
However, I’m afraid I am becoming increasingly uncertain that it’s productive to continue this conversation…
I am interested in a direct way of testing this hypothesis. The part about the assumption of progress was a minor digression. I hope you will understand.
The specific aim I had was to dispel the objection that I was merely biased. I may be biased. In fact, I probably am. But these sorts of arguments don’t normally lead anywhere. People pick “sides” and accuse the other side of being biased. But, as you wrote yourself, what matters is what’s actually true.
You stated,
I interpreted the assumption of progress as referring to one of these two possibilities,
The world has gotten better
The world will get better in the future
This makes a lot of sense considering Jason Crawford’s other posts.
My first bullet point addresses the first interpretation. It points out that the assumption of progress is not “deeply ingrained” as you claimed. It seems more that about half of people, or less, believe that the world has gotten better.
My other two bullet points address the second interpretation of the assumption of progress.
Neither of those interpretations are (a) what I meant, nor (b) entailed by the OP.
There are also several other serious problems with the points you made, having to do with their provenance, the possibility of sensibly interpreting them, etc.
However, I’m afraid I am becoming increasingly uncertain that it’s productive to continue this conversation…
Look, forget the specific bullet points for now.
I am interested in a direct way of testing this hypothesis. The part about the assumption of progress was a minor digression. I hope you will understand.
The specific aim I had was to dispel the objection that I was merely biased. I may be biased. In fact, I probably am. But these sorts of arguments don’t normally lead anywhere. People pick “sides” and accuse the other side of being biased. But, as you wrote yourself, what matters is what’s actually true.