Selective rationality makes it likely he will do bad things for bad reasons and be sincerely unaware that he is doing bad things. He can probably rationalize embezzling my money as glibly as he can rationalize avoiding a “bad school”...
But that's not what I observe in reality.
It is what we observed in the recent banking crisis. To take an even more extreme example, Pol Pot was a true believer who glibly rationalized away discrepancies. One of his rationalizations was that the bad consequences of his policies were the result of comrades betraying him, which led him to torture his comrades to death.
I would point out that a complete rejection of all pious rationalizations that are common today would mean adopting a number of views that are shared only by an infinitesimal minority. But clearly it's absurd to claim that everyone outside of this tiny minority is untrustworthy and of bad character.
Our financial system has just collapsed in a way that suggests that the great majority of those who adopt certain pious rationalizations applicable to the financial system are untrustworthy and of bad character. Certain single payer medical systems are apply an alarming level of involuntary euthanasia, aka murder, and everyone is piously rationalizing it, except for a tiny minority.
What I see is a terrifying and extremely dangerous level of bad behavior, glibly justified by pious and politically correct rationalizations.
Breathing difficulties in old people are a wide range of complex and extremely urgent problems, frequently difficult to diagnose and expensive to treat, and apt to progress rapidly to death over a few hours. Tracheotomy or similar urgent and immediate surgical treatment is often absolutely necessary, but for administrative reasons single payer medical systems find it very difficult to provide immediate surgery, surgery that is urgent in the sense of right now not urgent in the sense that in a couple of weeks you will eventually be be put on the extra urgent special emergency queue of people waiting to jump the rest of the merely ordinarily urgent special emergency queue. Therefore, old people who show up at the British health care system struggling to breath, are always treated with barbiturates, which of course stops them struggling. The inability to provide emergency surgery gets rationalized by the great majority of all respectable believers in right things, and these rationalizations are an indication of moral failure. Finding that it is administratively difficult for a single payer system to provide certain kinds of treatment, we see people rationalizing that the treatment actually provided is desirable, which rationalization makes them murderers or accomplices to murder.
What I see is a terrifying and extremely dangerous level of bad behavior, glibly justified by pious and politically correct rationalizations.
I agree with this as a general assessment (though we might argue about the concrete examples). I also see plenty of terrifying and ominous deeds justified by pious rationalizations.
However, I still don't see how you can infer bad character from ordinary, everyday rationalizations of the common people. Yes, these collectively add up to an awful tragedy of the commons, and individuals in high positions who do extra...
This is thread where I'm trying to figure out a few things about signalling on LessWrong and need some information, so please immediately after reading about the two individuals please answer the poll. The two individuals:
A. Sees that an interpretation of reality shared by others is not correct, but tries to pretend otherwise for personal gain and/or safety.
B. Fails to see that an interpretation of reality is shared by others is flawed. He is therefore perfectly honest in sharing the interpretation of reality with others. The reward regime for outward behaviour is the same as with A.
To add a trivial inconvenience that matches the inconvenience of answering the poll before reading on, comments on what I think the two individuals signal,what the trade off is and what I speculate the results might be here versus the general population, is behind this link.