but, still, on the whole if a person chooses to belong to some group (e.g., Christians or libertarians or effective altruists or whatever) that’s partly because they think that group gets right (or at least more right) some things that other groups get wrong (or at least less right).
Well, if I belong to the group of chocolate ice cream eaters, I do think that eating chocolate ice cream is better than eating vanilla ice cream—by my standards; it doesn’t follow that I also believe it’s better by your standards or by objective standards (whatever they might be) and feel smug about it.
Sure. Some things are near-universally understood to be subjective and personal. Preference in ice cream is one of them. Many others are less so, though; moral values, for instance. Some even less; opinions about apparently-factual matters such as whether there are any gods, for instance.
(Even food preferences—a thing so notoriously subjective that the very word “taste” is used in other contexts to indicate something subjective and personal—can in fact give people that same sort of sense of superiority. I think mostly for reasons tied up with social status.)
Well, if I belong to the group of chocolate ice cream eaters, I do think that eating chocolate ice cream is better than eating vanilla ice cream—by my standards; it doesn’t follow that I also believe it’s better by your standards or by objective standards (whatever they might be) and feel smug about it.
Sure. Some things are near-universally understood to be subjective and personal. Preference in ice cream is one of them. Many others are less so, though; moral values, for instance. Some even less; opinions about apparently-factual matters such as whether there are any gods, for instance.
(Even food preferences—a thing so notoriously subjective that the very word “taste” is used in other contexts to indicate something subjective and personal—can in fact give people that same sort of sense of superiority. I think mostly for reasons tied up with social status.)