"rationalist" movementlooks insidenothing but unquestioned assumptions and cultural bias

[ana@starlite.rodeo]

"rationalist" movement
looks inside
nothing but unquestioned assumptions and cultural bias

[ana@starlite.rodeo]

i think the thing is these people don't really mean "rational" in that sense, they mean "obvious and self-evident to me" which is a whole different thing

[jplebreton@mastodon.social]

@ana i still believe that the most fundamental common trait of rationalists is the belief that they are exceptionally "smart" and special and able to perceive reality more clearly than average people. everything else (the scientific racism, the overall treatment of women, the moral contortions, the various forms of fixation on "superintelligence") flows out of that.

[mcc@mastodon.social]

@jplebreton @ana I'd say "well the problem is we somehow viewed rationality as an achieved state rather than an aspiration… we should be focusing rather than being right on being less wrong" but the rationalist group literally named "lesswrong" managed to convince themselves of the existence of a jealous God based on the Harry Potter fanfic they had written so now I have no fucking idea what to do

[jplebreton@mastodon.social]

@mcc @ana identity and inborn qualities make for a really bad pairing with "intellectual integrity" / being rational and smart and correct, and LW is a community built squarely on that identity - again because of that bone deep commitment to being exceptional. one has to be willing to divest from those concepts entirely and being a flawed and biased and wrong-half-the-time creature despite best efforts, and owning the consequences of that.