Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Friday, December 25, 2015

The irrelevance of reason in politics

IVN published a Dissident Politics article on the biology of why the use of unbiased facts and logic are not persuasive or common in most political discourse.

In politics, unbiased facts and unbiased logic play a small role in shaping our world view and in how we apply logic to it. Both facts are logic are shaped and distorted by innate, unconscious biases and personal ideology or values. Human biology being what it is,  facts and logic that undercut or contradict personal biases and beliefs are usually downplayed or rejected completely, e.g., many anti-government ideologues reject human-caused climate change and/or climate science as a hoax or too unsettled to carry any persuasive weight. Contrary facts and logic are simply irrelevant to those personal beliefs and values.

The article echoes an earlier Dissident Politics article arguing that fact and logic have an unacceptably small a role in modern American politics, which is why our politics is unacceptably irrational.

The article is here.

No comments:

Post a Comment