> I'm surprised that anyone would be surprised by this fact. Here is an idea I've been thinking about a lot lately, that I proclaim can easily be observed if o

> I'm surprised that anyone would be surprised by this fact. Here is an idea I've been thinking about a lot lately, that I proclaim can easily be observed if one is willing to look (and, is supported to some degree by the the ~fact that it can also be easily be observed that people appear (keeping in mind that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence) to be not willing to look): >> "Chances are that you and I hold false beliefs that are useful that may not be true." Most people will have no problem accepting this idea - not only that it applies to people in general, but also that it applies to themselves (see: this thread).....provided the topic of conversation is the abstract phenomenon itself. However, if the topic of discussion is something else, at the object level (particularly Culture War topics), the ability to even acknowledge (within forum conversation) this phenomenon, let alone admit that it may apply to oneself, seems to (based on my experimentation thus far) completely vanish, and almost without exception. It is also my perception that this theory seems to be particularly unpopular in high-intelligence/rationalist communities, which makes it even more interesting. It's far too early to form any strong conclusions about this one way or another, but my intuition tells me there's something interesting and important going on here. It seems unlikely that this is a novel idea, has anyone encountered it elsewhere? Is there a name for it?