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This is intellectually lazy. You can't just assume that the large numbers of people who hold a position you disagree with do so only because they have some secr
by jjk166 5y ago
This is intellectually lazy. You can't just assume that the large numbers of people who hold a position you disagree with do so only because they have some secret bias. It's a position which is not falsifiable and which absolves oneself of having to think critically about their own position.
- rchaud 5y agoOne man's 'intellectually lazy' is another man's 'educated guess'. Or as this community loves to say about others, "“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” There are plenty of people online playing devil's advocate because one day they too could be rich and they don't want the harsh yoke of government regulation holding them back. On HN, part of the audience is in closer proximity to that kind of wealth, and their arguments in favour of that status quo reflect this.
- jjk166 5y agoCall it whatever you like, it's still a an unfalsifiable claim resting on fallacious reasoning. As a general best practice, if you are convinced something is true, ask yourself "what evidence would someone have to show me to convince me this is not true" - if you can't think of something, there's a problem.