People tend to hold many beliefs with too much confidence. One of the best ways to encourage them to be more skeptical is to demonstrate that you are skeptical of your own beliefs. The way one does this, is by offering disclaimers.

Hardworking Americans voted for Clinton; ergo Obama voters are non-working elitists.

If you say you prefer option A to option B, you also prefer A to any option C.

If there exists a C such that you prefer C to A, then I’d expect you to be talking about why you prefer C to B, not why you prefer A to B. So the fact that you’re talking about A>B indicates that C probably doesn’t exist. Why shouldn’t I update my beliefs about your preferences this way, unless you add an disclaimer?

Firstly, a disclaimer.

I am trying to be explicit that I am not arguing about “blacks” and “whites” here, any more than I am arguing about men and women, or Christians and Muslims, or Republicans and Democrats. Please do not continue to straw-man my arguments by portraying me as some kind of single-agenda racial supremacist.

“Consider the effect on a person from constant negative messages all day every day, even if those messages are all true.”

Good point. I don’t doubt the pernicious effect of negative messages. However, I’m not sure what you think is the solution: to censor ourselves for fear of making the situation worse?

Suppose that a student hands in a poor assignment at school, and is marked with a ‘D’ grade. As a result, he loses motivation and begins to get ‘E’ grades, and then ‘F’ grades.

If the student fails the course, is the teacher to blame for grading objectively? What about the students who get ‘D’ grades and respond by working harder?

“any discussion of group traits is historically poisoned”

Are you talking about racial groups or any kind of human groups? Besides racial differences, also gender differences, religious differences, class differences, political differences and cultural differences have all had historically “poisonous” outcomes at certain times.

Despite the potential for conflict, I personally value human diversity. “Let a hundred flowers bloom.”

“the context of US or european society is one where POC are *constantly* exposed to these racial tropes in an on-average negative way”

Michael, I assume by “POC” you mean “people of colour”. That term suggests to me a very binary view about racial identity.

“People with power and money tend to look like us.”

Why do you think we look alike?

“I will adjust my belief in the direction of your being part of the problem.”

You seem to be saying: I’m either with you or against you.

Robin Hanson has written the one piece that everyone on earth should read before they post comments on a blog:Writing…