Lumifer comments on Open Thread Feb 29 - March 6, 2016 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Elo 28 February 2016 10:11PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 07 March 2016 08:24:50PM *  1 point [-]

hearing "democracy doesn't work", "Jews are controlling everything", "vaccination causes autism" et cetera on a regular basis.

The first item in your list is relevant to NRx, but I'm not sure about the rest. Are you implying that from "these people believe in A" you can conclude that "they also must believe in B, C, and D"?

And I guess that in Russia, 90% of what neoreactionaries believe is a mainstream opinion, and you just have to turn on your TV to hear it directly from Putin.

I don't think that is true.

It looks like you have a tendency to put all the people and all the views you dislike into one big bucket and say "They are all the same". That's not a very good idea.

I'd rather know what makes some democracies work and other democracies fail.

You are not interested in what makes some political systems work and others fail..? :-)

Comment author: Viliam 07 March 2016 08:55:21PM -1 points [-]

It looks like you have a tendency to put all the people and all the views you dislike into one big bucket and say "They are all the same".

That's why I said 90%. There are also obvious differences: Putin still keeps a democratic facade in Russia, he supports Orthodox Christianity, and ethnic Russians are considered the superior race. As far as I know, NRs would abhor even pretend-democracy, would support religion but not Christianity because that inevitably leads to progressivism; and would support an idea of superior ethnic group but probably only if it includes themselves.

But they could have a nice debate about how Western civilization is weak, decadent, and doomed to failure; how giving rights to homosexuals is obviously stupid; how religion is necessary for a strong society; etc.

You are not interested in what makes some political systems work and others fail..?

You still haven't convinced me that Switzerland is a failure. I also don't know an example of a real country without elections where I would be tempted to move. Shall we discuss fictional evidence?

Comment author: Torchlight_Crimson 11 March 2016 03:01:15AM 2 points [-]

would support religion but not Christianity because that inevitably leads to progressivism

Depending on which neoreactionary. The neoreactionaries I'm familiar with, admittedly a tiny subset, are pro-traditional, i.e., non-progressive Christianity.

I also don't know an example of a real country without elections where I would be tempted to move.

How many real countries do you know without elections, period? I here the UAE is rather nice.

Comment author: Lumifer 07 March 2016 09:38:28PM *  0 points [-]

But they could have a nice debate about how Western civilization is weak, decadent, and doomed to failure; how giving rights to homosexuals is obviously stupid; how religion is necessary for a strong society; etc.

That's part of what I mean by saying that you put everyone you dislike into one big bucket. Let me link again the post I already mentioned. I don't notice it talking about homosexuals or religion, do you? Do you expect the author to broadly agree with Putin?

You still haven't convinced me that Switzerland is a failure.

I do not believe I have tried.