Kepler
Si certus es dubita
Re: 2020 Democratic Challengers VII: Bon Voyage Beto
It's not that they're morons. In fact most people are pretty clever when they're paying attention, like chimpanzees. You ever see somebody who knows what they're doing work on a car? Finish a deck? Rewire their house? These are people who can't think their way out of a paper bag politically but within their sphere they are NOT stupid. So it's not that they're morons.
It's that most people are rule following. It's not that they are conformist but they believe that the rules of the human universe exist and it's up to them to discover/receive them and then obey them. That there is "human nature" the way there is nature nature. That's why metaphysics of obedience like religions are so popular. Relatively few people ever realize that all social rules are human created and negotiable. Everything we believe got there because of a chain of other people believing it, which means along the line somebody done thunk it up. This goes for everything from gender is binary (or not) to all men are equal (or not) to infanticide is wrong (or not).
It doesn't mean these things are arbitrary or interchangeable -- you get very different worlds if you act one way or the other. But what you believe is a choice. And most people never catch on.
That's what makes logical argument so difficult, because it's what convinces people that when a fact comes in conflict with their beliefs they have to favor their beliefs. They think their belief is an inalienable part of them. And that's just not so. Beliefs are comfortable and often pragmatic but they aren't "true" the way Kepler's laws are true.
If you think most of the electorate are morons then you've already given up. I choose to believe there are people out there who are smarter than that and can be reached.
It's not that they're morons. In fact most people are pretty clever when they're paying attention, like chimpanzees. You ever see somebody who knows what they're doing work on a car? Finish a deck? Rewire their house? These are people who can't think their way out of a paper bag politically but within their sphere they are NOT stupid. So it's not that they're morons.
It's that most people are rule following. It's not that they are conformist but they believe that the rules of the human universe exist and it's up to them to discover/receive them and then obey them. That there is "human nature" the way there is nature nature. That's why metaphysics of obedience like religions are so popular. Relatively few people ever realize that all social rules are human created and negotiable. Everything we believe got there because of a chain of other people believing it, which means along the line somebody done thunk it up. This goes for everything from gender is binary (or not) to all men are equal (or not) to infanticide is wrong (or not).
It doesn't mean these things are arbitrary or interchangeable -- you get very different worlds if you act one way or the other. But what you believe is a choice. And most people never catch on.
That's what makes logical argument so difficult, because it's what convinces people that when a fact comes in conflict with their beliefs they have to favor their beliefs. They think their belief is an inalienable part of them. And that's just not so. Beliefs are comfortable and often pragmatic but they aren't "true" the way Kepler's laws are true.
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