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cousin_it comments on I've had it with those dark rumours about our culture rigorously suppressing opinions - Less Wrong Discussion

26 Post author: Multiheaded 25 January 2012 05:43PM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 28 January 2012 06:40:04PM 18 points [-]

Hot damn!

Thanks for letting me know.

The funny thing is, I think the idea that cuckoldry would be a non-issue if people were thinking clearly is pretty close to conventional ideas about adoption-- that people shouldn't use biological descent to make distinctions among the children they're raising. See also the fairly successful efforts to reduce the stigma of bastardy.

To extend the idea, we could say that just about all the pain people feel about status-lowering events is self-fulfilling prophecy, but this version less likely to sting because it isn't about something specific.

Just for fun, flip it over. People aren't nearly sensitive enough about their status. If people cared more about their rankings, they'd do a lot more, and enough of it would be worthwhile (by those entirely rational geek standards which are opposed to the bad mainstream standards) that there'd be a net gain.

One more: You can't tell anything important about a person by their taste in art, fiction, music, etc.

Comment author: cousin_it 28 January 2012 09:01:28PM *  5 points [-]

I think the idea that cuckoldry would be a non-issue if people were thinking clearly is pretty close to conventional ideas about adoption-- that people shouldn't use biological descent to make distinctions among the children they're raising.

I think folk morality only says that if you adopt kids, you should treat them equally to your biological kids. It doesn't say that people who have biological kids instead of adopting are bad people.

To extend the idea, we could say that just about all the pain people feel about status-lowering events is self-fulfilling prophecy

Why do you single out status-lowering events? You could go further and say that anything that doesn't cause physical pain is okay, e.g. stealing someone's car is okay because the victim theoretically could brainwash themselves to not care about material belongings.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 28 January 2012 09:52:33PM 2 points [-]

My first thought was that people are pushed to take status-raising events more seriously than they naturally would.

Considering that there's some variation in how people react to physical pain, I don't know why that (at least below some threshold) should be off-limits.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 28 January 2012 10:54:57PM 6 points [-]

My first thought was that people are pushed to take status-raising events more seriously than they naturally would.

Taboo "naturally".