Very good article. "Me" studies refers to, basically, studying yourself--which gets into topics of identity politics. (Instead of just studying your life, you might, say, study the history of your racial group in your country.) But the core of it is a simple model of how discussions get radicalized when people are studying oppression. The post-script is also fascinating reading, because someone objects to a minor comment in the first post in a way that highlights the underlying dynamics (see the first comment, possibly by the author of the email).
The next post on the same topic, On the problem of normative sociology, is also well worth reading.
(On an unrelated, but still rationalist, topic, see his post on the implications of psychology on consumerism / climate change.)
see his post on the implications of psychology on consumerism / climate change
Yes, this is a frequent mistake of rationality, sometimes so difficult to explain to people outside of LW.
Essentially, the world is a system of gears. To understand some activity that happens in world, look at the gears, what they do, and how they interact. Don't search for a mysterious spirit responsible for the activity, if the activity can be fully explained by the gears.
This is a simple application of naturalism into economics (and therefore to politics, because often poli...
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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