VoiceOfRa comments on Emotional tools for the beginner rationalist - Less Wrong Discussion
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A few times I got a reaction like: "I don't want to hear your facts!" which I translated as: "If there is a part of reality that doesn't match my map, I don't want to know about that part."
The part "your facts" is already weird. As if saying that different people live in different realities, and I don't want my reality to become contaminated by your reality (which could happen if I start to observe your reality too close or under your guidance). But of course we are talking about maps here. So basicly "your facts" means: "There is only my map and your map, and I am not interested in your map." So it's not like I don't want my map to correspond to the territory, but rather like there is no territory that could judge my map and find it wanting. There are only maps, and of course your map is going to differ from my map, but if you insist on me looking at your map, that is merely an aggression, a status move.
(I can even see how our educational system contributes to this feeling that it's maps all the way down. Most of what happens in schools is students copying the teachers' maps. But I digress.)
EDIT: Another example, maybe better. There are people who love to tell "their opinions" on theory of relativity, quantum physics, evolution, whatever. But if you suggest thay they read a textbook, or a popular science book on the topic, to fix at least their most obvious misconceptions, they proudly refuse. They prefer their original bullshit interpretation, even if there is an option to fix the obvious mistakes and improve their bullshit to make it more credible (which IMHO should be preferable even for people who like their own bullshit theories).
I think that's more a case of people becoming jaded from constantly being presented with "facts" that are false or at least highly misleading backed by arguments too clever for them to refute.
I'm sure that you will never be guilty of such a presentation.