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entirelyuseless comments on Non-communicable Evidence - LessWrong
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You can argue that we don't have direct write access to anything; but if you want to describe the facts with "we have direct write access to some things," then it is reasonable to include most aspects of our beliefs in that statement.
Let's say you attempt to think nothing for 5 minutes. Will you succeed with that because you are free enough to do so? >99% of people won't. On the other hand if I want to rise my right arm I can do that successfully nearly every time.
When it comes to changing beliefs, newspaper corrections are a good example. Alice reads a newspaper saying 'Bob is evil'. The next week the newspaper writes: "We were wrong, Bob isn't an evil at all". Does that mean that Alice is now less likely to believe that 'Bob is evil'? That's no automatic effect. Being remembered of the old belief that 'Bob is evil' can strenghens the belief. That's a fact that you have to take into account when you want to think about how belief change works, but that isn't in the mental model that assumes that people simply do free will decisions to change their beliefs.
"Think nothing for 5 minutes" is not like "raise my right arm." It is like "hold my arm so still for 5 minutes than a careful observer will not even notice a jitter." It is unlikely that anyone can do either of those things on demand. But I can refrain from most complete thoughts for 5 minutes, and from large motions of my arm. My control over my thoughts is actually very similar to my control over my arm. You find dissimilarity because you are comparing the wrong things.