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A more accurate title would be "Stephen Pinker Thinks [the Author's] Sense of Imminent Doom is Wrong". He is refuting the author's sense that a cluster of cris
by jbay808 5y ago
A more accurate title would be "Stephen Pinker Thinks [the Author's] Sense of Imminent Doom is Wrong".
He is refuting the author's sense that a cluster of crises implies imminent doom, not that there might be other reasons to have a sense of doom.
> It’s not irrational to identify genuine threats to our well-being. It is irrational to interpret a number of crises occurring at the same time as signs that we’re doomed. It’s a statistical phenomenon that when events are randomly sprinkled in time they cluster.
- _jal 5y agoThat's kind of his schtick, though, isn't it? To make a narrow argument phrased to imply it demonstrates far wider applicability than it does?
- jbay808 5y agoIt wasn't Stephen Pinker who wrote the headline, it was the NYT editors. And I guess they've decided that Stephen Pinker thinks you're wrong about X gets more of a reaction than Stephen Pinker thinks I'm wrong about X.