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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   29832 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 21, 2023

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Furries claim to be expressing personal preferences, not universal beliefs that apply to everyone.

Well, he was offering a specific bet to a specific person right here, so it seems fair to point out we're in weird internet people central.

Maybe if "lots" means "at least 2", but pretty much everyone outside the rationalist bubble would refuse to do so.

I don't know what to tell you. "At least 2" would be the amount of normies I've personally run into who claim to have made money off of Trump's election. Beyond that "wanna bet?" was the quickest way to resolve a dispute since I was like 10. Granted, people quickly learn not to take such bets unless we were damn sure about the result, but this is exactly what bets are supposed to do in rat-discourse. If you really want to take a jab at rationalists, make fun of them for reinventing something children come up with on their own, and acting like that makes them smart.

Well, he was offering a specific bet to a specific person right here

No, he wasn't. He was replying to one person, but he wasn't offering the bet to one person, and he explicitly stated that he hasn't "encountered a single person" willing to bet, implying that the failure of people in general to bet shows that they don't think it's true.

For the record, the bet is totally open to everyone on this forum! The offer was made openly way back on the subreddit - to this day there have still been no takers. And yes, the main reason I bring the bet up is to imply that my interlocutors don't actually agree with the position they're espousing in their heart-of-hearts, and I think looking at things with a financial incentive can sometimes produce clearer thinking.

And yes, the main reason I bring the bet up is to imply that my interlocutors don't actually agree with the position they're espousing in their heart-of-hearts,

This seems to imply that most people agree with no positions at all.

I find that most people act in accordance with the positions they actually hold. In fact I believe that's the logic behind the idea of "revealed preferences".

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