thomblake comments on The noncentral fallacy - the worst argument in the world? - Less Wrong

157 Post author: Yvain 27 August 2012 03:36AM

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Comment author: TimS 12 September 2012 06:00:10PM 2 points [-]

Ok, I'm out. You are actively hurting causes that I think are important. Please STOP.

If you say you are advancing better social roles for women, you are LYING. To me, or to yourself.

Comment author: thomblake 12 September 2012 06:01:44PM 2 points [-]

If you say you are advancing better social roles for women, you are LYING. To me, or to yourself.

That seems like an uncharitable conclusion - it seems much more likely that eridu is merely mistaken, for example.

Comment author: TimS 12 September 2012 06:09:16PM -2 points [-]

Being mindkilled and claiming otherwise is a lie.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 13 September 2012 08:34:45PM 4 points [-]

I should think that being mindkilled is very likely to include not being aware of being mindkilled.

Comment author: [deleted] 13 September 2012 02:56:34AM 3 points [-]

or an irrational mistake.

Comment author: Bugmaster 13 September 2012 02:27:18AM 1 point [-]

That sounds like an unconventional definition of the word "lie", at best.

Let's imagine that you asked me whether I owned a car, and I said "yes". Unbeknownst to me, my car had been utterly obliterated by a meteorite strike five minutes prior. Did I lie ?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 13 September 2012 02:23:31AM *  1 point [-]

How does that expanded definition of lie square with what you said about guilt-tripping elsewhere in the thread?

Edit: I should mention I somewhat agree with your use of the word lie, for reasons similar to those discussed here, and disagree with your position on guilt tripping.

Comment author: TimS 13 September 2012 07:06:11PM *  1 point [-]

Which position on guilt-tripping do you mean? :)
I was not careful with my words and thus articulated several distinct positions. The most accurate articulation is that I think we are responsible for society's actions with which we have a causal relation. By contrast, convention morality asserts that we are responsible only for things that we proximately cause.

Separately, I assert that our social actions cause the social norms of a society. And most of our actions are social actions. EDIT: Thus, we are responsible for any harms caused by society's social norms.

I don't under what any of that has to do with my post at issue, which is about my division between (a) delusional actors for whom responsibility is a useless concept for outsiders to use (not guilty by reason of insanity), and (b) those who are maliciously irrational.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 14 September 2012 12:09:35AM *  1 point [-]

I don't under what any of that has to do with my post at issue, which is about my division between (a) delusional actors for whom responsibility is a useless concept for outsiders to use (not guilty by reason of insanity), and (b) those who are maliciously irrational.

 

Being mindkilled and claiming otherwise is a lie.

People who are mindkilled generally don't realize it.

Comment author: TimS 14 September 2012 01:26:06AM 3 points [-]

Generally, yes. But it is possible to be poor at updating on the evidence related to a proposition P, but realize the fact "TimS is poor at updating related to P." It's not common, but it does happen.*

Don't we aspire to be the Lens that Sees Its Flaws.

  • Yes, I've noticed that this position is more nuanced than the original statement. I was angry, so I'll take my lumps for making imperfect statements under the influence of anger. The downvotes are more explicable to me than some downvotes I've gotten.
Comment author: Eugine_Nier 16 September 2012 06:47:53PM 3 points [-]

I agree, I also think this applies to a lot more situations than just this case.

Comment author: TimS 16 September 2012 10:40:28PM -1 points [-]

Given what we've said before in this particular conversation, I don't understand what you are saying here.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 18 September 2012 12:41:59AM 3 points [-]

Guilt tripping does work, and can be an effective method of changing people's behavior.