RichardKennaway comments on Can the Chain Still Hold You? - Less Wrong

108 Post author: lukeprog 13 January 2012 01:28AM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 14 February 2012 09:06:42AM 7 points [-]

It's not clear to me why you're presuming social effects are the primary selection pressure pushing against hermaphroditism.

Because it is the political position I was indoctrinated into.

That's a rather startling thing to say, at least on LessWrong.

Quiet honestly it was such a unique and interesting idea that I accepted it into my own ideology pretty readily.

As is this.

However honestly, the counter-arguement that there there are other genetic factors that are more primary is potentially acceptable.

Leaving aside the particular questions of sex, gender, and normalcy, what do you, and those who have influenced you, judge to be "acceptable" forms of argument? What should, or should not, give you a reason to believe something?

Comment author: HungryTurtle 14 February 2012 01:27:30PM 3 points [-]

That's a rather startling thing to say, at least on LessWrong.

Is it startling to be honest? Perhaps I was not careful enough with my wording, or my tone did not come across correctly, but the statement "Quite honestly it was such a unique and interesting idea that I accepted it into my own ideology pretty readily" was confessional. I said "potentially acceptable" because I feel that the speculation here is not grounded in expertise, and I don't want to repeat the mistakes of my youth and be just as easily indoctrinated by your flashy idea as the previous one. I really am not too familiar with this community, but personally, I try to be as critical and reflective as possible of the discourse that encompasses my beliefs. It is somewhat embarrassing that I never thought to question the biological fitness of hermaphrodites in general, but the truth is I didn't. It would be nice to chalk that up to youthful naiveté at the time of indoctrination, but it just as easily could have been a blind spot in my reflections.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 15 February 2012 10:23:50AM 1 point [-]

Sorry, I had read it as being your current justification for the belief.

Comment author: HungryTurtle 15 February 2012 07:14:37PM 1 point [-]

No problem, any fault is probably more due to my writing than your thinking.