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private_messaging comments on SotW: Avoid Motivated Cognition - Less Wrong
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I am somewhat surprised that I cannot find the honest Devil's advocacy anywhere on the list of techniques of spotting rationalizations. I understand that EY dislikes it, because it's easy to "invent arguments for anything", but how easy is it to invent a good argument against something you deeply believe in? And by "good" I mean an argument that does not appear silly at the first or even second glance (so, no "chocolate cake in the asteroid belt" nonsense). Or maybe this is covered by the "The world is not like X and I believe X" quadrant, though not explicitly.
To me, one of the best examples of the technique is popularized in the ST:TNG episode The Measure of a Man.
if it is easy to invent arguments for anything, then your definition of what constitutes an argument is too broad and includes nonsense.
It's easy to invent bad arguments for anything, including arguments that, when you are motivated to produce them, you may not notice are bad arguments. Limiting "argument" to mean good arguments is too narrow a definition. As always, the definition of "argument" is not the point here.