Alejandro1 comments on [Link] Offense 101 - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Alejandro1 24 October 2012 09:28PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (86)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Alejandro1 25 October 2012 04:42:52PM 2 points [-]

One safeguard against this would be doing it with more advanced students instead of freshmen, as I suggested elsewhere on the thread, so that they are already somewhat used to evaluating arguments and claims in a detached, academic way. Another one would be pairing opposite views: white nationalism and black liberation theology, extreme radical feminism and conservative Catholic theology, etc. Then people with weak preexisting convictions are unlikely to be swayed to one side.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 26 October 2012 01:03:23AM 4 points [-]

Another one would be pairing opposite views: white nationalism and black liberation theology, extreme radical feminism and conservative Catholic theology, etc. Then people with weak preexisting convictions are unlikely to be swayed to one side.

The thing is, in both those cases the two positions have more in common than either would be willing to admit.

For example, both white nationalism and black liberation theology state that people of different races shouldn't live together. Both extreme radical feminism and conservative Catholic theology have similar positions on pornography for reasons that are actually remarkably similar once one unpacks their jargon.