private_messaging comments on We Don't Have a Utility Function - Less Wrong
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I'll admit it's rather shaky and I'd be saying the same thing if I'd merely been brainwashed. It doesn't feel like it was precipitated by anything other than legitimate moral argument, though. If I can be brainwashed out of my "terminal values" so easily, and it really doesn't feel like something to resist, then I'd like a sturdier basis on which to base my moral reasoning.
What is a conversation metaphor? I'm afraid I don't see what you're getting at.
I still value freedom in what feels like a fundamental way, I just also value hierarchy and social order now. What is gone is the extreme feeling of ickyness attached to authority, and the feeling of sacredness attached to freedom, and the belief that these things were terminal values.
The point is that things I'm likely to identify as "terminal values", especially in the contexts of disagreements, are simply not that fundamental, and are much closer to derived surface heuristics or even tribal affiliation signals.
I feel like I'm not properly responding to your comment though.
Are you sure you aren't simply trading open ended beliefs for those that circularly support themselves to a greater extent? When you trust in an authority which tells you to trust in that authority, that's sturdier.