= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
cousin_it comments on I've had it with those dark rumours about our culture rigorously suppressing opinions - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
Comments (857)
Even if my opponents try hard to discover "dangerous truths" that would help their side asymmetrically, I still expect them to mostly find truths that help everyone, because most truths are this way.
Also it's kind of unusual that you want your political opponents to stop looking for correct beliefs because they may accidentally get too many. Most people seem to think the other way around: they feel their political opponents are brainwashed by leaders and would change their values if they had more curiosity and intellectual honesty.
You are attributing to me things I did not say.
I don't think "truths" discovered under false assumptions are likely to be, in fact, true. I am not worried about them acquiring dangerous truths; rather, I am worried about people acquiring (and possibly acting on) false beliefs. I remind you that false beliefs may persist as cached thoughts even once the assumption is no longer believed in.
Nor do I want my political opponents to not search for truth; but I would prefer that they (and I) try to contend with each others' fundamental differences before focusing on how to fully realize their (or my) current position.
I don't understand your comment. Do you think statements like "the most efficient way to destroy our country is to do X" don't qualify as truths because they are "discovered under false assumptions"? It seems to me that such statements can be true and very useful to know even if you don't want to destroy the country, hence my original proposal. Maybe you're using a nonstandard meaning of "truth" and "assumption"?