"In a moral dilemma where you lost something either way, making the choice would feel bad either way, so you could temporarily save yourself a little mental pain by refusing to decide." From Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which I'm reading at hpmor.com. My solution is to make that dilemma more precise so that I will know which way I'd go. It nearly always requires more details than the creator of the hypothetical is willing to provide.
I am the webmaster of voluntaryist.com since I inherited it from the previous owner and friend of mine,...
I actually conclude the opposite from you in terms of the value of "conflationary alliances". I will pick on the examples you provided:
Alice ignores Bob's decent argument against eating porkchops using an appeal to authority (if we consider science to be authoritative, which I do not) or an appeal to popularity (if we consider science to be valid because of popular recognition that certain hypotheses have never been disproven). The fact that Bob and Alice are having the discussion opens the door for Bob to explain his own meaning and show Alice... (read more)