alienist comments on Rationality Quotes December 2014 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Salemicus 03 December 2014 10:33PM

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Comment author: dxu 16 December 2014 08:30:29PM *  4 points [-]

You are invited by a friend to what he calls a "cool organization". You walk into the building, and are promptly greeted by around twenty different people, all using variations on the same welcome phrase. You ask what the main point of the organization is, and several different people chime in at the same time, all answering, "Politics." You ask what kind of politics. Every single one of them proceeds to endorse the idea that abortion is unconditionally bad. Now feeling rather creeped out, you ask them for their reasoning. Several of them give answers, but all of those answers are variations of the same argument, and the way in which they say it gives you the feeling as though they are reciting this argument from memory.

Would you be inclined to stay at this "cool organization" a moment longer than you have to?

Comment author: alienist 17 December 2014 03:09:35AM 7 points [-]

Would you be inclined to stay at this "cool organization" a moment longer than you have to?

Yes, actually, and I don't see why it is creepy despite your repeated assertions that it is.

Several of them give answers, but all of those answers are variations of the same argument,

And if they gave completely different arguments, you'd complain about the remarkable co-incidence that all these arguments suggest the same policy.

Comment author: dxu 17 December 2014 03:53:13PM *  2 points [-]

Yes, actually, and I don't see why it is creepy despite your repeated assertions that it is.

Difference of opinion, then. I would find it creepy as all hell.

And if they gave completely different arguments, you'd complain about the remarkable co-incidence that all these arguments suggest the same policy.

I probably would, yes, but I would still prefer that world to the one in which they gave only one argument.