So I'll try a different approach - instead of giving it a go myself again, I'll simply ask, what do /you/ think a good LW post about liberty, freedom, and fundamental human rights would look like?
The problem with writing about these concepts directly is that they're (a) very hard to define, and (b) applause lights. So while everyone agrees that they're good and important, few people agree what they are. In order to write a meaningful post about "freedom", you have to get specific and talk about "freedom to do X" - and in that case you're usually better off talking about X without the applause light. When people try to talk about freedom, liberty and/or human rights from a thousand-mile-high perspective, without zooming in on a specific and concrete example, they end up missing all the important distinctions and getting hopelessly confused.
Thank you for that reply - it was cogent, descriptive, and helps me figure out what I can try doing next.
(Eg, maybe something along the lines of "Man is a rational animal - he doesn't use claws or poison to survive, he uses his brain. In order /to/ use his brain most effectively, he has to be able to do certain things - most fundamentally, he has to stay alive, and in order to do that, he has to X, Y, and Z; in order to come up with new ideas to know better how to stay alive, he has to be able to discuss ideas freely; etc, etc, etc.")
Politics is the mind-killer; but rationality is the science of /winning/, even when dealing with political issues.
I've been trying to apply LessWrong and Bayesian methods to the premises and favored issues of a particular political group. (Their most basic premise is roughly equivalent to declaring that Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma programs should be 'nice'.) But, given how quickly my previous thread trying to explore this issue was downvoted into disappearing, and many of the comments I've received on similar threads, I may have a rather large blind spot preventing me from being able /to/ properly apply LW methods in this area.
So I'll try a different approach - instead of giving it a go myself again, I'll simply ask, what do /you/ think a good LW post about liberty, freedom, and fundamental human rights would look like?