The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
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The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
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Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#2Accepting epistemic uncertainty is very difficult and unsettling but totally worthwhile.
Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#3Accepting epistemic uncertainty is very difficult and unsettling but totally worthwhile.
Agreed
Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#4There have been a few articles posted to HN pointing out the folly of assuming your competitors are stupid. You're better off assuming that for reasons unknown, they rationally have made the decisions they did.
Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#5Yes but what if the other side doesn't extend you the same courtesy? What if the other side sees your thoughtfulness as weakness, your careful consideration as waffling and flip-flopping and leaps onto the opportunity to push even more extreme views, becomes even more absurdly divisive?
On the whole in terms of writing, social media, op eds, etc I feel intellectuals (left and right) have taken this advice too much and been stomped all over because of it. Be polite, respectful, but firm and unyielding. Don't concede points without needing to. Don't give credence where credence is not due. Don't allow people to exploit your willingness to respectfully consider their arguments to shift the Overton window and win before you even open your mouth.
Because the person who is arguing back doesn't want to win the argument. He just wants the audience to consider his ridiculous, extremist views just as or almost as reasonable as yours. So you can meet in the middle, which has been pushed so far towards him that it was where he wanted to be in the first place.
I think this is excellent advice if you're talking to someone you know and respect in real life.
Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#6The "Other side" is scared, not dumb. Molly Ivins used to point this out. For the white lower middle class, life has been a slow downhill slide since the mid-1970s. Those are the people who support Trump and the Tea Party.
Unfortunately, exploiting that fear is politically effective. This is a problem with a long history. There are records of it back as far as Cicero.
It's not their fault that they don't know what to do. Nobody knows what to do. We have all this productivity, and we don't need that many people to make all the stuff. Economic policymakers don't know how to deal with that. If you want to look for dumb, look at what comes out of economists. There's a sizable faction that says there can never be a shortage of demand. Tell that to Wal-Mart's CEO, who says their customers are spent out.
(Sometimes they really are dumb, as in that Oregon "militia" group camping out in the bird sanctuary.)
Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#7[deleted]
Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#8The "Other side" is scared, not dumb. Molly Ivins used to point this out. For the white lower middle class, life has been a slow downhill slide since the mid-1970s. Those are the people who support Trump and the Tea Party. Unfortunately, exploiting that fear is politically effective. This is a problem with a long history. There are records of it back as far as Cicero. It's not their fault that they don't know what to…
There's also the 130+ IQ group of neoreactionaries who like Trump from a perspective informed by history.
Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#9The "Other side" is scared, not dumb. Molly Ivins used to point this out. For the white lower middle class, life has been a slow downhill slide since the mid-1970s. Those are the people who support Trump and the Tea Party. Unfortunately, exploiting that fear is politically effective. This is a problem with a long history. There are records of it back as far as Cicero. It's not their fault that they don't know what to…
There's also the 130+ IQ group of neoreactionaries who like Trump from a perspective informed by history.
They're opportunists at best.
Demagoguery isn't exactly a new art. It has been a driving force to centralize power since the dawn of human civilization.
IMHO, it's sick and pathetic that many who are capable of having the greatest positive impact on society often squander it on vanity and narcissism.
Re: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb
#10Yes but what if the other side doesn't extend you the same courtesy? What if the other side sees your thoughtfulness as weakness, your careful consideration as waffling and flip-flopping and leaps onto the opportunity to push even more extreme views, becomes even more absurdly divisive? On the whole in terms of writing, social media, op eds, etc I feel intellectuals (left and right) have taken this advice too much an…
Prisoner's Dilemma?