= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
ChristianKl comments on Politics Discussion Thread January 2013 - 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)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (334)
(Not sure whether this should go here or the Open Thread.)
We frequently discuss the difference between epistemic and instrumental rationality. Most political discussions seem to be "epistemic politics" - what political beliefs to have and why. I see very little discussion of "instrumental politics" - what kind of political actions to take and why. Beyond mind-killing, this is probably the main reason I currently have no interest in politics: I don't have a good conception of what kind of political actions are available to me. How would I go about fixing this?
A while ago I was in an online discussion with someone from an East European country who was demostrating to end the current government.
I asked the person for an article that explains the evils of the government. He told me that I didn't know of an English article that explained the issue in detail.
I told him that instead of being the 10,001st person at protest it would be much more effective to write a English article that explain the evil of the government and submit it to the Guardian's Comment is Free section.
He didn't think he was qualified to write the article and instead continued to demonstrate. Writing such an article is something that doesn't need special connections or money.
On the other hand it does take courage. You might come under attack. It takes real political understanding of the situation. It takes writing abilites.
Most other effective political action involves talking to people who have influence or donating money.