As usual, my viewpoint on this changed multiple times as I read through the posting, and then the comments. That, for me, makes for a good posting—lots to think about.
My guess is that this Charlie character and others like him are not using a “no criticism” rule to maliciously promulgate their crazy memes, knowing that they are false and wouldn’t stand up to criticism. The social motivation of keeping a discussion between newly-met strangers non-threatening is more plausible. Partly because these people probably don’t give much thought to whether their beliefs are true or not—i.e. they are bullshitters rather than liars.
There are a bunch of reasons why you might want to temporarily suspend criticism. For example, brainstorming ideas to solve a scientific or engineering problem. But when it comes time to make a decision about what to do, then critical thought has to come into play. Often when confronted with all kinds of irrationality (religious, political, pseudo-scientific, inter-personal), I have to ask “am I expected to do anything about this?”. If the answer is no, I can shrug and get back to my reading.
The fact that society gives religion a special exemption from having to be supported by evidence is probably one of the best reasons to keep religion out of politics. We have a word for governments that wield the “no criticism” rule!
As usual, my viewpoint on this changed multiple times as I read through the posting, and then the comments. That, for me, makes for a good posting—lots to think about.
My guess is that this Charlie character and others like him are not using a “no criticism” rule to maliciously promulgate their crazy memes, knowing that they are false and wouldn’t stand up to criticism. The social motivation of keeping a discussion between newly-met strangers non-threatening is more plausible. Partly because these people probably don’t give much thought to whether their beliefs are true or not—i.e. they are bullshitters rather than liars.
There are a bunch of reasons why you might want to temporarily suspend criticism. For example, brainstorming ideas to solve a scientific or engineering problem. But when it comes time to make a decision about what to do, then critical thought has to come into play. Often when confronted with all kinds of irrationality (religious, political, pseudo-scientific, inter-personal), I have to ask “am I expected to do anything about this?”. If the answer is no, I can shrug and get back to my reading.
The fact that society gives religion a special exemption from having to be supported by evidence is probably one of the best reasons to keep religion out of politics. We have a word for governments that wield the “no criticism” rule!