I'm happy to discuss specifics, just not about the neo reactionary FAQ. I agree with VB that LW has an unhealthy tendency that every discussion becomes about neo reaction, and I don't like it.
Instead, how about this article. Jim Edwards is a bright guy, and he clearly intended to persuade with that post. And indeed he has plenty of commenters who think he was making a valuable point. Yet I am at a loss to say what it is. Here he is, claiming to have a graph showing that government spending affects economic growth, yet all that graph shows is changes in government spending. It doesn't show a correlation, it doesn't suggest causation, it doesn't do anything of the sort. Yet some poeople find this persuasive.
When someone says they like dance music (for example), I feel like I'm missing out; they get joy out of something I hate, which in some ways makes them better than me, but fundamentally de gusts us non set disputandum. The older I get, the more I feel like that's how all persuasion works.
Yup, those charts puzzle me, too (based on about five seconds of analysis, admittedly, but I have a strong preexisting belief that there are many examples of such silliness on the Internet, so I'm strongly inclined to agree that this particular chart is yet another example... which is of course yet another example of the kind of judgment-based-on-non-analytical factors we're discussing).
How confident are you that this is how all persuasion works?
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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