I think I have this skill, but I don’t know that I could write this guide. Partly this is because there are lots of features about me that make this easier, which are hard (or too expensive) to copy. For example, Michael once suggested part of my emotional relationship to lots of this came from being gay, and thus not having to participate in a particular variety of competition and signalling that was constraining others; that seemed like it wasn’t the primary factor, but was probably a significant one.
Another thing that’s quite difficult here is that many of the claims are about values, or things upstream of values; how can Draco Malfoy learn the truth about blood purism in a ‘safe’ way?
Thanks (&Yoav for clarification). So in your opinion is MV dangerous to a class of people with certain kinds of beliefs the way Harry was to Drako (the risk was pure necessity to break out of wrong ideas) or is he dangerous because of an idea package or bad motivations of his own
When someone has an incomplete moral worldview (or one based on easily disprovable assertions), there’s a way in which the truth isn’t “safe” if safety is measured by something like ‘reversibility’ or ‘ability to continue being the way they were.’ It is also often the case that one can’t make a single small change, and then move on; if, say, you manage to convince a Christian that God isn’t real (or some other thing that will predictably cause the whole edifice of their worldview to come crashing down eventually), then the default thing to happen is for them to be lost and alone.
Where to go from there is genuinely unclear to me. Like, one can imagine caring mostly about helping other people grow, in which a ‘reversibility’ criterion is sort of ludicrous; it’s not like people can undo puberty, or so on. If you present them with an alternative system, they don’t need to end up lost and alone, because you can directly introduce them to humanism, or whatever. But here you’re in something of a double bind; it’s somewhat irresponsible to break people’s functioning systems without giving them a replacement, and it’s somewhat creepy if you break people’s functioning systems to pitch your replacement. (And since ‘functioning’ is value-laden, it’s easy for you to think their system needs replacing.)
He is referring to HPMOR, where the following happens (major spoiler for the first 25 chapters):
Harry tries to show Draco the truth about blood purism, and Draco goes through a really bad crisis of faith. Harry tries to do it effectively and gracefully, but non the less it is hard, and could even be somewhat dangerous.
I think I have this skill, but I don’t know that I could write this guide. Partly this is because there are lots of features about me that make this easier, which are hard (or too expensive) to copy. For example, Michael once suggested part of my emotional relationship to lots of this came from being gay, and thus not having to participate in a particular variety of competition and signalling that was constraining others; that seemed like it wasn’t the primary factor, but was probably a significant one.
Another thing that’s quite difficult here is that many of the claims are about values, or things upstream of values; how can Draco Malfoy learn the truth about blood purism in a ‘safe’ way?
Thanks (&Yoav for clarification). So in your opinion is MV dangerous to a class of people with certain kinds of beliefs the way Harry was to Drako (the risk was pure necessity to break out of wrong ideas) or is he dangerous because of an idea package or bad motivations of his own
When someone has an incomplete moral worldview (or one based on easily disprovable assertions), there’s a way in which the truth isn’t “safe” if safety is measured by something like ‘reversibility’ or ‘ability to continue being the way they were.’ It is also often the case that one can’t make a single small change, and then move on; if, say, you manage to convince a Christian that God isn’t real (or some other thing that will predictably cause the whole edifice of their worldview to come crashing down eventually), then the default thing to happen is for them to be lost and alone.
Where to go from there is genuinely unclear to me. Like, one can imagine caring mostly about helping other people grow, in which a ‘reversibility’ criterion is sort of ludicrous; it’s not like people can undo puberty, or so on. If you present them with an alternative system, they don’t need to end up lost and alone, because you can directly introduce them to humanism, or whatever. But here you’re in something of a double bind; it’s somewhat irresponsible to break people’s functioning systems without giving them a replacement, and it’s somewhat creepy if you break people’s functioning systems to pitch your replacement. (And since ‘functioning’ is value-laden, it’s easy for you to think their system needs replacing.)
Ah sorry would you mind elaborating the Draco point in normie speak if you have the bandwidth?
He is referring to HPMOR, where the following happens (major spoiler for the first 25 chapters):
Harry tries to show Draco the truth about blood purism, and Draco goes through a really bad crisis of faith. Harry tries to do it effectively and gracefully, but non the less it is hard, and could even be somewhat dangerous.
I edited your comment to add the spoiler cover. FYI the key for this is > followed by ! and then a space.
Ah, great, thank you :)