SilasBarta comments on Typical Mind and Politics - Less Wrong

46 Post author: Yvain 12 June 2009 12:28PM

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Comment author: SilasBarta 12 June 2009 10:48:47PM 2 points [-]

They are morally preferable to you, not necessarily to everyone.

Sure, I didn't mean to imply otherwise. But nevertheless, a huge part of why I hold those moral preferences is that I believe that they would also better satisfy the values of those who nominally "disagree". To me, libertarian serves more as a metasystem in which differing value systems can be tested, and the refusal of someone to subject their values to such a test is what makes them suspect to me.

Or at least that's what my reptilian brain is tricking me into thinking...

Comment author: SoullessAutomaton 12 June 2009 11:55:19PM 1 point [-]

Sure, I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

I assumed as much, and this is why I was arguing for avoiding language that seemed to imply an objective difference between rights and regulations. The difference is purely a moral one and it behooves us as rationalists to avoid seemingly-objective terminology on things that are at best quirks of human nature. Otherwise we fall into the "Islam is a religion of peace" trap that has been discussed before.

To me, libertarian serves more as a metasystem in which differing value systems can be tested, and the refusal of someone to subject their values to such a test is what makes them suspect to me.

Whereas I tend to see large-scale libertarianism, in the conventional sense of a political organization promoting legislative goals, as being a concerted effort to impose on others an untested, anarchic context that stands a good chance of having dire and difficult to correct failure modes that will reduce the quality of life even for those who didn't want it, with a side helping of being unwitting pawns of plutocrats who want reduced government where it benefits them but plenty of regulation for everyone else (i.e., mainstream so-called "conservativism").

Perhaps that clarifies why someone with otherwise more libertarian views than not finds the philosophy disagreeable...