Re:Steelmanning the NIMBYs
by dragonwriter on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @10:15AM
(#18121877)
> Why do supposed “rationalists” insist on trying to advocate everything through dispassionate, logical discourse?
They generally don't; reacting negatively, as here, to what is seen as a particularly egregious example of emotional manipulation without accompanying substantive argument isn't the same as insisting on all promotion being purely rational, and very few “rstionalists” take the extreme position you describe.
Still, they do tend to object to egregious examples because the nature of emotional manipulation is that once you recognize it directed at yourself, it naturally produces a strong negative emotional reaction and a reactive deepening of skepticism (the nature of such manipulation is that it is most likely to be noticed, even by sophisticated information consumers, when deployed in favor of a cause the listener is already skeptical of) of the substantive justification of the party deploying it.
> Do they have zero understanding of human psychology and sociological group dynamics?
It seems that, aside from the strawman problem, the question you ask demonstrates exactly the problem you complain of.
They generally don't; reacting negatively, as here, to what is seen as a particularly egregious example of emotional manipulation without accompanying substantive argument isn't the same as insisting on all promotion being purely rational, and very few “rstionalists” take the extreme position you describe.
Still, they do tend to object to egregious examples because the nature of emotional manipulation is that once you recognize it directed at yourself, it naturally produces a strong negative emotional reaction and a reactive deepening of skepticism (the nature of such manipulation is that it is most likely to be noticed, even by sophisticated information consumers, when deployed in favor of a cause the listener is already skeptical of) of the substantive justification of the party deploying it.
> Do they have zero understanding of human psychology and sociological group dynamics?
It seems that, aside from the strawman problem, the question you ask demonstrates exactly the problem you complain of.