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Recently, I've been subjected to several posts on Twitter about Peter Singer. Singer posits a compelling argument: Society accepts a certain concept, A, yet its variant A', which along many relevant dimensions is similar to A but should be less objectionable, is met with taboo. Here is Singer's post, although I don't want to get into the the details because I'm thinking not about the argument itself but the prevalent reaction to it. The most common response to Singer's points is not an intellectual rebuttal but rather an expression of shock and outrage. The taboo around A' is like an emotional firewall, preventing any rational discourse.
This pattern of reaction is disconcerting. We live in a world of complex issues that demand thoughtful consideration, yet it appears that a significant portion of discourse is reduced to emotional outbursts. It's really hard for me not to feel disheartened or even adopt a misanthropic view when I see things like this.
So, is this emotional explosiveness truly representative of the general populace, or is it just that on Twitter, the most extreme views gain the most traction? Moreover, how can we, as individuals seeking constructive dialogue, navigate this landscape without succumbing to frustration or misanthropy?
I'm genuinely interested in understanding whether these reactions are as pervasive as they seem and what strategies we might employ to foster more meaningful, thought-provoking conversations, especially in a world dominated by emotional responses.
Besides being obvious sneerclub bait, this post is kind of ridiculous because you can sum it up as "Why does the Motte exist?", but I just want to know if there is any way to bring more people into the Motte's style of discourse or how serious a problem it is that some people are seemingly unpersuadable.
I'm pretty sure if you asked the same question Singer proposed to a random person on the street, or to your family or to your coworkers a lot of them would have the same visceral disgust response, even if these are intelligent people.
Even if they were capable of thinking through the possibility rationally, why would they want to possibly associate yourself with someone that would ask a question like that, even if it was in context of something that would make sense? Perhaps they might think "well I'm okay discussing this, but maybe Susie or John from accounting might overhear and then think I'm a weirdo too." Better to not take the risk.
Maybe a more anonymous platform would some users to be more willing to engage in that discussion, but even on places like reddit or 4chan you see emotional outbursts all the time.
Besides, most people don't think strictly logically and rationally. See the conjunction fallacy.
This is not an emotionally charged question and yet people aren't defaulting to logic, so it shouldn't be surprising that on a controversial question regarding zoophilia and animal cruelty people are not able to think about it objectively.
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