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Konkvistador comments on [SEQ RERUN] Stop Voting For Nincompoops - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: MinibearRex 12 December 2011 02:54AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 13 December 2011 04:45:56PM *  1 point [-]

So you basically interested what drives changes in ruling class opinion? And feel comfortable with more or less equating elite opinion change with social change?

Comment author: TimS 13 December 2011 05:00:18PM 3 points [-]

I'm interested in what attempts to cause social change actually "work."
A theory that activism never works seems no more consistent with the evidence than a theory that activism without elite support is the primary cause of social change.
On the specific example we're discussing, the evidence seems to be that the NAACP was activist, not a "ruling institution" from its founding (1909) until some point in the post-WWII period. Yet the NAACP created conditions that led to enormous social change.