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TheOtherDave comments on Only You Can Prevent Your Mind From Getting Killed By Politics - Less Wrong
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"Litmus test" in common U.S. usage means a quick and treated-as-reliable proxy indicator for whether a system is in a given state. To treat X as a litmus test for rationality, for example, is to be very confident that a system is rational if the system demonstrates X, and (to a lesser extent) to be very confident that a system is irrational if the system fails to demonstrate X.
This is how I meant it.
That's what I thought first too, but it seems to also have a political meaning.
You mean the test can be completely unreliable, like many political litmus tests probably are?
Yes, I do mean that.
What a sadly disfigured figure of speech. Chemists would disapprove :(
I wonder if there are many more like it.
That's pretty much the same meaning; just read "person or policy" for "system", and "ideologically acceptable" for "in a given state".