Read on Twitter
You tell a lot about whether something is true by what kind of arguments those who oppose it make.
People opposed to an idea have a very strong incentive to refute the central point if they can. When they don't, they are sending a strong signal that the thing is true.
People opposed to an idea have a very strong incentive to refute the central point if they can. When they don't, they are sending a strong signal that the thing is true.
The lower down the hierarchy they go, the stronger the signal.
The more important and commonly discussed (where at least some people take the unpopular side) the issue is, the stronger the signal.
The more important and commonly discussed (where at least some people take the unpopular side) the issue is, the stronger the signal.
Of course this isn't a perfect rule. sometimes people can intuit that an idea or claim is wrong but they aren't capable of giving a good justification so they start confabulating.
(There's an art that I would like to get better at of digging into these confabulations)
(There's an art that I would like to get better at of digging into these confabulations)
Examples of refuting the central points:
(1) The "enemies" (i.e. woke) don't actually believe that 2+2=5. They used 2+2=5 as a (somewhat ill-chosen) metaphor for creative, out-of-the-box thinking and knowing how to choose an appropriate model.
(1) The "enemies" (i.e. woke) don't actually believe that 2+2=5. They used 2+2=5 as a (somewhat ill-chosen) metaphor for creative, out-of-the-box thinking and knowing how to choose an appropriate model.
The problem with all the 2+2=5 discourse is that although it is intended as a metaphor for thinking creatively, it is perhaps a better metaphor for plain old bottom-line reasoning and motivated cognition, which they do sometimes excel at!
(2) The "enemies" (i.e. woke) don't actually believe that cutting your penis off makes you a woman. They believe something worse than that (yes, really).
They believe that you can be a woman just by thinking that you're a woman, and that society must bend itself around that.
They believe that you can be a woman just by thinking that you're a woman, and that society must bend itself around that.
There is some kernel of truth to this because the biological mechanisms that determine gender are spaghetti code where multiple quasi-independent processes usually go together but sometimes don't.
But what is actually happening is that many people who have pretty much perfectly well-aligned gender compasses inside them are getting into trans-ness because they have some other psychological problem.
Genuine gender misalignment is rare, other mental illness is common...
Genuine gender misalignment is rare, other mental illness is common...
... so people who are just depressed/stressed/have trauma related to their perfectly functioning female (or male) gender are getting real 
.
Because the whole trans thing has become so political, the number of misdiagnosed cases is huge and the harms are very real.
. Because the whole trans thing has become so political, the number of misdiagnosed cases is huge and the harms are very real.
But the central error they are making is thinking that reality can be whatever we want it to be, rather than that the body and brain are physical systems with an underlying truth to them that we ignore at our peril.
The whole thing is just a perfect microcosm of leftist intellectual dysfunction.
Lastly, credit for the hierarchy of disagreement goes to @paulg
http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html
Are The Left insane?
Yes, yes they are. They are very insane. But the right are too, albeit in different ways (they just have to hide it more as they don't have power).
The most recent rightist insanity was the neocons thinking that Iraq would go well. https://twitter.com/JuliusBranson/status/1322312336259112968
Yes, yes they are. They are very insane. But the right are too, albeit in different ways (they just have to hide it more as they don't have power).
The most recent rightist insanity was the neocons thinking that Iraq would go well. https://twitter.com/JuliusBranson/status/1322312336259112968
Debate doesn't change minds in the short term, but over decades (the long term) the truth is powerful.
