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buybuydandavis comments on Is altruistic deception really necessary? Social activism and the free market - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: PhilGoetz 26 February 2016 06:38AM

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Comment author: buybuydandavis 27 February 2016 03:39:29AM 2 points [-]

Empirically, however, Democrats seem to lie much less than Republicans (see, e.g., a recent NY Times report on PolitiFact checking of the Presidential candidates)

You're taking the New York Times and PolitiFact as unbiased estimators of the truth of Democrats and Republicans?

Literally, I laughed out loud.

Comment author: username2 27 February 2016 02:27:48PM 4 points [-]

NYT and Politifact may be biased, but your comment is very bad argument. "Agree with me, because otherwise I'll laugh at you"? Shouldn't LWers strive to root out these kinds of arguments instead of upvoting them?

Comment author: Lumifer 28 February 2016 03:49:47AM 5 points [-]

but your comment is very bad argument. "Agree with me, because otherwise I'll laugh at you"?

That comment was not an argument.

A wise man would have interpreted it as a warning: "You're being ridiculous".

Comment author: buybuydandavis 01 March 2016 05:38:42AM *  0 points [-]

My incredulousness was as much for the statement as for Phil making that statement. Maybe I have Phil all wrong, but I really don't picture him as a fan of the New York Times either.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 01 March 2016 07:27:41AM *  1 point [-]

You're right that the people behind PolitiFact are biased. It says so on their website. I suppose I shouldn't have cited them. I let my own unquantified belief that Republicans lie more often overrule my standards. I realize on consideration that what I probably believe is that Republicans (since Newt) pull dirty tricks more often, which isn't the same.

Perhaps data on conviction rates by party is available. This list of Congressman convicted of crimes appears to my casual inspection to have more Democrats than Republicans on it.

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