Comment by ben_w | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ben_w | Hacker News Reader

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I have had some rather… negative vibes, for lack of a better term, from some of the American bits I've encountered online; but for what it's worth, I've not seen what you described in the German community.

There is, ironically, no escape from two facts that was well advertised at the start: (1) the easiest person for anyone to fool is themselves, and (2) politics is the mind-killer.

With no outwardly visible irony, there's a rationalist politics podcast called "the mind killer": https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/the-mind-killer/id1507...

Saying this as someone who read HPMOR and AI to Zombies and used to listen to The Bayesian Conspiracy podcast:

This is feeling a bit of that scene in Monty Python Life of Brian where everyone was chanting in unison about thinking for themselves.

The problem with "politics is the mind-killer" is that it seems to encourage either completely ignoring politics (which is mostly harmless but also results in pointlessly ceding a venue for productive action in service of one's ideals) or engaging with politics in a very Machiavellian, quasi-Nietzschean way, where you perceive yourself as slicing through the meaningless Gordian knot of politics (which results in the various extremist offshoots being discussed).

I understand that the actually rational exegesis of "politics is the mind-killer" is that it's a warning against confirmation bias and the tendency to adopt an entire truth system from one's political faction, rather than maintaining skepticism. But that doesn't seem to be how people often take it.

Someone who follows politics to anticipate possible consequences is considered 'rational' think of the 25% tariffs trump enacts. You dont even need to have an opinion on the matter but you shouldn't be suprised when the bill comes around. What I think people consider political destruction of the mind is when someone is consumed by the actions of a character that does not and should not have influence over their behaviour.

Politics aren't the mind killer, fear is. Politics just use fear to achieve their ends

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9weLK2AJ9JEt2Tt8f/politics-i...

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