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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 3, 2023

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You will not can’t logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into...

Eh, this is debatable. I've met more than a few people who've held onto positions they've uncritically followed the footsteps of, until their first time someone came along and explicitly challenged their beliefs. I'd agree however, that the odds aren't good, considering the context, heh.

I actually do agree it's theoretically possible to logic someone out of a non-logic'd position, but it happens so seldomly for meatspace acquaintances and relationships that the probability can be lossily rounded to zero.

One possible counter-example of logic'ing people out of a non-logical position I thought of while I was writing that comment was the Pitbull Question (PQ), where it appears that the wrong-thinkers have been winning, even on Reddit. However, this was not accomplished by "Despite being 6% of the dog population, pitbulls commit 66% of all fatal attacks"-posting but rather spreading awareness, news articles, and videos of pitbull attacks, especially where the victims were sympathetic, like women and children. Anecdoting people out of a non-logical position.

It is not a coincidence that the PublicFreakout and ActualPublicFreakout-adjacent subreddits have strict rules against Noticing.

I agree with this.

As I already mentioned, I'm not at all that optimistic about the plausibility of most people changing their beliefs in light of a logical challenge to it. The overwhelming majority of people's beliefs are not arrived via logical deduction or consideration. Then again, that also includes people like us. I'd put to you a challenge I've tried subjecting myself to in the past. Try to formalize as many beliefs that you hold, consisting of premises that someone else should believe, on their face. I'd contend you couldn't do it. I couldn't, for most of my beliefs. As big of a believer as I am in logic and mathematics and hard empirical evidence, if those were the only beliefs I'd be willing to act on, I would be such a nerd. I'd never be able to interact with another human being. Not that I'm all that successful on that front, in the first place.

I think for most people, ignorance and impulse overpower ideology. I fully agree with the problem of Noticing. That's the biggest problem I've had, all across platforms like Reddit. Any ideology that lacks an update mechanism is going to force you to dig in your heels, and into highly uncomfortable positions, that have you defend the most insane looking ideas. But I don't think that's where the problem of Noticing stems from. People have their tribal identities and intellectually primitive beliefs before an ideological artifice begins to appear in the mind.