fubarobfusco comments on Open thread, Nov. 17 - Nov. 23, 2014 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: MrMind 17 November 2014 08:25AM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 19 November 2014 07:22:14AM *  1 point [-]

I don't see sixes_and_sevens labeling people as crackpots:

I have observed that imaginary experts often buy into the crackpot narrative to some extent, whereby established experts in the field are all wrong, or misguided, or slaves to an intellectually-bankrupt paradigm.

(Emphasis added.)

In other words, it's not that someone has or lacks the crackpot label. Rather, there is a "crackpot narrative", a sort of failure mode of reasoning, which people can subscribe to (or repeat to themselves or others) to a greater or lesser extent.

The difference is significant. It's like the difference between saying "Joe is a biased person" and saying "Joe sure does seem to exhibit fundamental attribution error an awful lot of the time, doesn't he?"