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Viliam_Bur comments on How to deal with non-realism? - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: loup-vaillant 22 May 2012 01:58PM

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Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 24 May 2012 09:59:24AM 1 point [-]

I'm more with Orwell, seeing the totalitarian dangers from non-realism.

Can you point to any historical examples of totalitarian regimes that adhered to an official ideology that contained non-realism (anti-realism, etc...) as a doctrine?

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 25 May 2012 03:59:02PM *  0 points [-]

Seems to me like the totalitarian regimes see themselves as realist. They just refuse to update when their "reality" does not match the territory. Killing the people who point out the difference is easier. Sometimes they change opinions, but then the new opinion becomes the "reality".

So I would say that totalitarian regimes profess realism. They just refuse the idea of updating, because they believe their map already matches the territory perfectly. And they also refuse the outside view, because they believe to be incomparable to others.

EDIT: Seems like I was probably wrong. I am not sure.