komponisto comments on Let them eat cake: Interpersonal Problems vs Tasks - Less Wrong

70 Post author: HughRistik 07 October 2009 04:35PM

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Comment author: komponisto 10 October 2009 06:42:07PM *  0 points [-]

That's a tangent. You said it was more wrong to be frightened here on LW, than in general

No, that was the tangent, actually. I didn't expect that remark to be picked up and seized upon as a controversial claim. I expected the contrary arguments to run "Yes, of course no one here is a rapist, but even so we still shouldn't have people saying X because..."

If you don't share my intuition that proportionally fewer rapes occur in the context of academic conferences and philosophy club meetings than sporting events and bars, then we'll just have to refer to statistical data to find out who is right.

But in either case, I consider the taboo discussion to be more interesting/important, belabored though it may be.

Comment author: DanArmak 10 October 2009 07:08:08PM 3 points [-]

"Yes, of course no one here is a rapist"

That's the controversial claim, all right.

I don't share your intuition, but it wouldn't matter if I did. We LW should be frightened of having intuitions for which we can't, on reflection, give any supporting evidence! And automatically considering your in-group to be of higher virtue or above suspicion is a very well known and widespread human bias. That's why we picked on your claim.

Comment author: wedrifid 10 October 2009 07:33:18PM 1 point [-]

We LW should be frightened of having intuitions for which we can't, on reflection, give any supporting evidence!

I'm more likely to be merely surprised. I can think of supporting evidence for just about any intuition.