Jack comments on Single Point of Moral Failure - Less Wrong

14 Post author: Alexandros 06 April 2010 10:44PM

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Comment author: Jack 07 April 2010 09:16:58PM 2 points [-]

How immune do people here think they are to tribalist thinking? How confident are you you wouldn't get swept up in a nationalist fervor?

Comment author: steven0461 07 April 2010 09:29:03PM 8 points [-]

I'd say nationalism is less worrisome for LWers than X-ism, where X is some tribe that inspires tribal thinking but that isn't usually seen as a tribe.

Comment author: CronoDAS 07 April 2010 09:20:01PM *  5 points [-]

I'm not! Yay us, boo them!

Comment author: sketerpot 08 April 2010 07:09:18PM *  4 points [-]

I don't think I've ever seen a bunch of people quite so full of habitual self-doubt as the folks on Less Wrong. Personally, I just don't see how nationalist fervors even work. Rallies of any kind have always left me cold, even when everybody around me is cheering their lungs out. There's no way I could start thinking thoughts like "My country, right or wrong" for more than three seconds without stopping to root out the infection -- a familiar feeling by now, actually, since knowing about cognitive hazards often makes it possible to recognize when you're slipping into one. I don't think I'm unusual among LW-denizens in this respect.

But by all means, keep on being uneasy about this. That's probably prudent.

Comment author: Alexandros 07 April 2010 09:45:43PM *  2 points [-]

For myself, I am painfully aware of my vulnerability to nationalism. I blame it on the years of propaganda from the entire cultural context I grew up in.