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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Dave, your statements seemed to be predicated on using a disagreement about AGW to label someone an “idiot”. Labeling someone an idiot (or not) is not my goal or the goal of my statements at all. My goal is for policy makers to have a correct understanding of reality so that a correct understanding of reality will be used to inform policy so that correctly informed policy will lead to a more prosperous and better world.

My very strong belief is that reality based policy is the best policy, and policies that are reality based have the least total bias against stakeholders. Non-reality based policies favor particular special interests at the expense of others.

I appreciate that Conservatives view the world differently than I do. I try to view the world through the lens of reality; of facts and logic. Conservatives tend to view the world by believing what people with high social status in that particular social hierarchy tell them. Social status in the Conservative social hierarchy is about position in the hierarchy. In a Conservative social hierarchy, people can be marginalized by high status Conservatives calling them idiots. People can become high status Conservatives by having or paying a lot of money to other Conservatives or by Conservatives saying that they are high status. The nature of Conservatism is to favor the existing social power structure, even (or especially) if it is wrong.

I don't disbelieve people because I think they are idiots, I disbelieve people because what they are saying doesn't correspond with reality and then I infer that they are idiots (or evil) for believing (or pretending) that it does.

What people believe and what people say has no influence on what actual reality is. Conservatives have a hard time accepting that because their world view is so tied-up with status and signaling on the social status hierarchy, not in trying to figure out what reality is actually like.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Thanks for the reply. You are clearly expressing your opinion. I will continue reading your posts.

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