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Consider the theory that aliens intent on causing strife are using mind control rays to affect people’s political opinions en masse. Just for the sake of discu

by comex 6y ago

Consider the theory that aliens intent on causing strife are using mind control rays to affect people’s political opinions en masse. Just for the sake of discussion (a mental experiment of sorts), let us imagine that there is some significant truth to this theory - let's (temporarily) assume(!) it to be True, at least to a significant degree. In this purely hypothetical scenario, might this phenomenon offer some logical explanation for the amount of extreme polarization of opinion that can be witnessed in the world etc.? The answer is yes. If people’s political opinions were being manipulated by aliens en masse (assumed as a premise), then it would be very likely that the amount of polarization in the world would have some connection to that. But assuming arbitrary premises like this this doesn’t seem like a very useful way to learn about the real world.

mistermann 6y ago
> But assuming arbitrary premises like this this doesn’t seem like a very useful way to learn about the real world. See this comment is interesting, here are two ways (there may be more): 1. You have made a rather significant change in the topic. I was talking about: "It's so interesting...there is this well known phenomenon where ~everyone has at least some bias the vast majority of the time, and in a forum thread...." But you switched the topic, to the examination an attribute: arbitrariness 2. You have described a hypothetical scenario, focused attention one one single attribute, and then suggested/implied that the two scenarios are ~"the same". Also, in doing so, you are treating "arbitrary" as a boolean, which might cause a reader to not realize that the degree of arbitrariness is not even close to the same. This technique would generally fall under the Strawman Argument category. These are really enjoyable conversations, let me know if you have more ideas. There's actually a handbook (can't remember the name at the moment) of some sort floating around the internet that goes through lots of these techniques, in case you're interested in this sort of thing.

by comex 6y ago

mistermann 6y ago

> But assuming arbitrary premises like this this doesn’t seem like a very useful way to learn about the real world. See this comment is interesting, here are two ways (there may be more): 1. You have made a rather significant change in the topic. I was talking about: "It's so interesting...there is this well known phenomenon where ~everyone has at least some bias the vast majority of the time, and in a forum thread...." But you switched the topic, to the examination an attribute: arbitrariness 2. You have described a hypothetical scenario, focused attention one one single attribute, and then suggested/implied that the two scenarios are ~"the same". Also, in doing so, you are treating "arbitrary" as a boolean, which might cause a reader to not realize that the degree of arbitrariness is not even close to the same. This technique would generally fall under the Strawman Argument category. These are really enjoyable conversations, let me know if you have more ideas. There's actually a handbook (can't remember the name at the moment) of some sort floating around the internet that goes through lots of these techniques, in case you're interested in this sort of thing.