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 extraordinary misdeeds and employ extraordinary rationalizations are usually worse than lying, cynical climbers. But among the common folk, I really don't see any connection between individual bad character and the regular, universally accepted pious rationalizatons.
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
We cannot infer bad character from collective consequences of delusive socially approved beliefs. We can infer bad character if delusive beliefs are apt to result individual bad consequences to other people.
In the hypothetical case of the person who wholly genuinely believes in some delusive socially approved belief, one can easily see that it would result in bad conse...
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.