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Nornagest comments on Open thread, July 28 - August 3, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: polymathwannabe 28 July 2014 08:27PM

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Comment author: Nornagest 03 August 2014 05:17:35PM 2 points [-]

I'd expect rage to be better at converting people already predisposed to belief into True Believers, but worse at making believers of the undecided, and much worse at winning over those predisposed to opposition.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 03 August 2014 07:59:15PM 3 points [-]

The rage level actually drives away some of the people who would be inclined to help them, and has produced something that looks a lot like PTSD in some of the people in the movement who got hit by opposition from others who were somewhat on the same side..

Still, they've gained a certain amount of ground on the average. I have no idea what the outcome will be.

Comment author: Azathoth123 03 August 2014 06:48:38PM 3 points [-]

Well, if you can vaguely imply that it might be physically dangerous to disagree, a little rage can work wonders.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 03 August 2014 08:05:11PM 3 points [-]

As far as I can tell, there's very little in the way of physical threats, but (most) people are very vulnerable to emotional attacks.

As I understand it, that's part of what's powering SJWs-- they felt (and I'd say rightly) that they were and are subject to pervasive emotional attack both from the culture and from individuals, and are trying to make a world they can be comfortable in.

That "as I understand it" is not boilerplate-- I read a fair amount of SJ material and (obviously) spent a lot of time thinking and obsessing about it, but this is a huge subject (and isn't the same in all times, places, and sub-cultures), and I've never been an insider.