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Comment author: MTGandP 26 March 2016 04:41:23PM *  40 points [-]

The survey has been taken by me.

Comment author: blacktrance 26 March 2016 03:43:14AM 40 points [-]

I have taken the survey.

Comment author: iceman 26 March 2016 03:03:27AM 40 points [-]

Survey achieved.

Comment author: richard_reitz 26 March 2016 02:36:43AM 40 points [-]

I have taken the survey.

Comment author: Viliam 29 March 2016 08:28:57PM *  33 points [-]

Yeah, it's nice when your opponents volunteer to remove from you the burden of proof whether they are irrational.

But seriously, I don't even know where to start. Perhaps here: Articles written on most popular websites are clickbait. It means that their primary purpose is to make you read the article after seeing the headline, and then share it either because you love it or because you hate it. And that's what you did. Mission accomplished.

Another article on the same website explains why animal rights movements are oppresive. (I am not going to link it, but here are the arguments for the curious readers: because it's wrong to care about animals while there are more important causes on this planet such as people being oppressed; because vegans and vegetarians don't acknowledge that vegan or vegetarian food can be expensive; because describing animals as male and female marginalizes trans people; and because protecting animals is colonialistic against native people who hunt animals as part of their tradition.) Obviously, the whole article is an exercise in making the reader scream and share the article to show other readers how crazy it is. This is exactly what the authors and editors get paid for; this is how you shovel the sweet AdSense money on them. So the only winning move is not to play this game.

.

I may be too extreme in this aspect, but when I talk with most people, I simply assume that almost everything they say is a metaphor for something (usually for their feelings), and almost nothing is to be taken literally. This is a normal way of communication among people who couldn't program a Friendly AI if their very lives depended on it.

When someone says "rationality is bad", the correct translation is probably something like "I hate my father because he criticized me a lot and didn't play with me; and my father believes he is smart, and he makes smartness his applause light; and this is why I hate everything that sounds like smartness". You cannot argue against that. (If you try anyway, the person will not remember any specific thing you said, they will only remember that you are just as horrible person as their father.) This is how people talk. This is how people think. And they understand each other, so when another person who also hates their father hears it, they will get the message, and say something like "yeah, exactly like you said, rationality is stupid". And then they know they can trust each other on the emotional level.

Here is a short dictionary containing the idioms from the article:

  • everydayfeminism.com = "I hate my father"
  • we should abolish prisons, police = "I hate my father"
  • cisheteropatriarchy = "I hate my father; but I also blame my mother for staying with him"
  • those who are committed to social justice = "my friends, who also hate their fathers"
  • we have to stop placing limits on ourselves = "we should steal some money and get high"
  • Being Rational Has No Inherent Value = "I don't even respect my father"
  • my very existence is irrational = "my father disapproves of my lifestyle"
  • The only logical time for abolition and decolonization is now = "I wish I had the courage to tell my parents right now how much I am angry at them"

You are overanalyzing it, searching for a logical structure when there is none. If you treat the article as a free-form poem, you will get much closer to the essence. You don't share the author's emotions, that's why the text rubs you the wrong way.

And by the way, other political groups do similar things, just in a different flavor (and perhaps intensity).

Comment author: Fluttershy 27 March 2016 04:38:29AM 39 points [-]

I have taken the survey. :)

Comment author: AspiringRationalist 27 March 2016 01:01:08AM 39 points [-]

I took the survey.

Comment author: bbleeker 26 March 2016 12:15:56PM 39 points [-]

I have taken the survey. I left a lot of questions blank though, because I really have no opinion about many of them.

Comment author: helldalgo 27 March 2016 04:30:40AM 38 points [-]

Survey taken.

In response to LessWrong 2.0
Comment author: kilobug 03 December 2015 12:32:54PM 38 points [-]

Personally, I liked LW for being an integrated place with all that : the Sequences, interesting posts and discussions between rationalists/transhumanists (be it original thoughts/viewpoints/analysis, news related to those topics, links to related fanfiction, book suggestion, ...), and the meetup organization (I went to several meetup in Paris).

If that were to be replaced by many different things (one for news, one or more for discussion, one for meetups, ...) I probably wouldn't bother.

Also, I'm not on Facebook and would not consider going there. I think replacing the open ecosystem of Internet by a proprietary platform is a very dangerous trend for future of innovation, and I oppose the global surveillance that Facebook is part of. I know we are entering politics which is considered "dirty" by many here, but politics is part of the Many Causes, and I don't think we should alienate people for political reasons. The current LW is politically neutral, and allows "socialists" to discuss without much friction with "libertarians", which is part of its merits, and we should keep that.

Comment author: Terdragon 27 March 2016 02:16:33AM 37 points [-]

I have taken the survey.

Comment author: ingres 26 March 2016 01:51:02AM 37 points [-]

I have taken the survey.

Comment author: hawkice 27 March 2016 05:46:34PM 36 points [-]

Took the survey, had the recurring survey confusion about some questions. For instance, I think some taxes should be higher and others should be lower. Saying I have no strong opinion is inaccurate but at least it seemed like the least inaccurate answer.

Comment author: tut 27 March 2016 04:36:48PM 36 points [-]

Me too.

Comment author: Sophronius 27 March 2016 03:18:43PM *  36 points [-]

RE: The survey: I have taken it.

I assume the salary question was meant to be filled in as Bruto, not netto. However that could result in some big differences depending on the country's tax code...

Btw, I liked the professional format of the test itself. Looked very neat.

Comment author: Volyova 27 March 2016 01:37:15PM 36 points [-]

I did My Part!

Comment author: fictionfan 27 March 2016 12:43:46PM 36 points [-]

I have taken the survey.

Comment author: Artaxerxes 27 March 2016 07:42:08AM 36 points [-]

Took it!

It ended somewhat more quickly this time.

Comment author: faul_sname 27 March 2016 07:06:10AM *  36 points [-]

I have taken the survey.

Comment author: b_sen 27 March 2016 06:21:30AM 36 points [-]

I took the survey!

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