Truth, strike two

[ciphergoth]

Thanks for some interesting and surprising responses to the JFK question. At the risk of creating more heat than light, let me try another example, one that I think might be a little less comfortable to be neutral about.

It seems that many people believe that on the morning of September 11, 2001, four thousand or more Israelis who were working at the World Trade Center did not show up for work.

Are those people wrong?

(Update: amended as per ajva's caveat)

Comments

[mskala.livejournal.com]

I think (1) is trivially true and I don't think you need to prove it further.

(2) is harder. It reminds me of some of the stuff tongodeon has been struggling with in some of his recent postings (http://tongodeon.livejournal.com/tag/science) - and it doesn't help that his friendslist consists mostly of people who agree with or at least respect him, so he doesn't get much feedback on why his approach isn't convincing to people who don't.

One trap that must be avoided: Even though it is true that "sometimes it is OK to tell [people who are wrong] so." that doesn't mean that "it is always OK to tell them so." It's very easy if you're sure you are right, to neglect that distinction.

Another trap: If you think that someone is stupid - which is different from wrong - then it will be impossible for you to convince them of anything. It doesn't matter whether you say "you're stupid," or say something polite that they are too stupid to understand translates as "you're stupid," or don't say it at all. When you think someone is stupid, then you have put your own brain into a mode incompatible with performing the computations necessary for forming a convincing argument.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Not everyone agrees on (1); see my previous post. On (2), see my reply to some_fox.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

When you think someone is stupid, then you have put your own brain into a mode incompatible with performing the computations necessary for forming a convincing argument.


Thank you for expressing that so clearly. I think I do mostly agree with you, even though it's an error I fall into sometimes, and am tempted to fall into more often...