I don’t think politics should be off limits on Less Wrong, but I do think it is something that is too difficult for all except experienced rationalists. Since this comic is aimed at beginners you should probably substitute politics with something less mind-killerish.
Particularly with respect to the “Citizens should keep themselves well armed” part, I have serious doubts that this is useful advice in practice or principle; it makes it more difficult for me not to view the rest of the comic negatively, and if you want to cultivate good epistemological and instrumental rationalists, this is probably some of the lowest priority advice you could be giving.
Politics is high priority stuff, and it’s important that it be approached rationally, but if you want to instruct rationalists, it’s one of the worst possible teaching tools.
To be clear, the reason I retracted my post was because jimrandomh had already made the same point. Next time I will check the comments before posting. Also, I would not have retracted it if I had known someone had already replied to it.
I don’t think politics should be off limits on Less Wrong, but I do think it is something that is too difficult for all except experienced rationalists. Since this comic is aimed at beginners you should probably substitute politics with something less mind-killerish.
I agree.
Particularly with respect to the “Citizens should keep themselves well armed” part, I have serious doubts that this is useful advice in practice or principle; it makes it more difficult for me not to view the rest of the comic negatively, and if you want to cultivate good epistemological and instrumental rationalists, this is probably some of the lowest priority advice you could be giving.
Politics is high priority stuff, and it’s important that it be approached rationally, but if you want to instruct rationalists, it’s one of the worst possible teaching tools.
To be clear, the reason I retracted my post was because jimrandomh had already made the same point. Next time I will check the comments before posting. Also, I would not have retracted it if I had known someone had already replied to it.