I have no idea what you mean to say, unless it is simply a way of saying I'm an idiot while muddying the discussion. Clearly there are two parts to your post. I am saying the underlying sentiments I attribute to you from that post are: self-aggrandizing, tribalistic, straw-manning
If you think that I am criticizing your exaggerating rherotical expression, you're mistaken. I think the underlying sentiment, stripped of rhetoric is: self-aggrandizing, tribalistic, straw-manning. I'm repeating for clarity.
Not only is no one accusing you of being nerds, it is not even a reasonably exaggeration of what anybody says about this place. You do know you' (Less Wrong) are perceived as crazy, right?
Maybe you can help me unpack your original statement then.
Self aggrandizing: analytic people NEED to be self aggrandizing, they're calibrated poorly on how much better they are than other people IME.
Tribalistic: you mean my statement is applause lights for LW beliefs? I didn't think my point was totally obvious. I've been making an effort to say more things I consider obvious due to evidence that I'm poorly calibrated on what is obvious.
Straw manning: You say yourself that others think we are crazy. To say I am straw manning implies that I am attributin...
I've spent so much time in the cogsci literature that I know the LW approach to rationality is basically the mainstream cogsci approach to rationality (plus some extra stuff about, e.g., language), but... do other people not know this? Do people one step removed from LessWrong — say, in the 'atheist' and 'skeptic' communities — not know this? If this is causing credibility problems in our broader community, it'd be relatively easy to show people that Less Wrong is not, in fact, a "fringe" approach to rationality.
For example, here's Oaksford & Chater in the second chapter to the (excellent) new Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning, the one on normative systems of rationality:
Is it meaningful to attempt to develop a general theory of rationality at all? We might tentatively suggest that it is a prima facie sign of irrationality to believe in alien abduction, or to will a sports team to win in order to increase their chance of victory. But these views or actions might be entirely rational, given suitably nonstandard background beliefs about other alien activity and the general efficacy of psychic powers. Irrationality may, though, be ascribed if there is a clash between a particular belief or behavior and such background assumptions. Thus, a thorough-going physicalist may, perhaps, be accused of irrationality if she simultaneously believes in psychic powers. A theory of rationality cannot, therefore, be viewed as clarifying either what people should believe or how people should act—but it can determine whether beliefs and behaviors are compatible. Similarly, a theory of rational choice cannot determine whether it is rational to smoke or to exercise daily; but it might clarify whether a particular choice is compatible with other beliefs and choices.
From this viewpoint, normative theories can be viewed as clarifying conditions of consistency… Logic can be viewed as studying the notion of consistency over beliefs. Probability… studies consistency over degrees of belief. Rational choice theory studies the consistency of beliefs and values with choices.
They go on to clarify that by probability they mean Bayesian probability theory, and by rational choice theory they mean Bayesian decision theory. You'll get the same account in the textbooks on the cogsci of rationality, e.g. Thinking and Deciding or Rational Choice in an Uncertain World.