I have a lot of thoughts on this, many of which are not suitable for discussion on LW, but one thing I strongly believe is that people (esp. LWers) should not discuss politics except insofar as it informs a potential decision to emigrate.
As a framework for grounding a discussion, this has a lot of advantages. Most obviously, the decision if and where to emigrate is a near mode question, since most of us could actually emigrate if we wanted. Secondly, it grounds the discussion in solid facts, instead of airy conceptual speculation (“is Trump a racist?” becomes “will Trump hurt or help the economy?”). Emigration decisions are less judgmental: if I think Singapore is the best country, and some else says Sweden is better, then we simply conclude that I should move to SG and he should move to SE, not that one or the other is a bad person. Rationalists who spend a lot of time discussing sociopolitics are mostly failing to solve a bounded-rationality problem, since most of us will never influence the rest of society, so the time we spend thinking about it is largely wasted. Finally, at least for Americans, it reminds us that in spite of the apparently catastrophic state of our politics, the US is still a pretty good country overall.
in spite of the apparently catastrophic state of our politics, the US is still a pretty good country overall
But I disagree with this:
people (esp. LWers) should not discuss politics except insofar as it informs a potential decision to emigrate
and this:
Rationalists who spend a lot of time discussing sociopolitics are mostly failing to solve a bounded-rationality problem, since most of us will never influence the rest of society, so the time we spend thinking about it is largely wasted.
It seems to me that the culture is influenced by discussion (for example, it is hard for me to believe that the discussion that took place on social media over the past year had no influence on the US election outcome). By recommending that LWers refrain from participating in political discussion, it seems to me that you are just removing a set of (relatively) rational, reflective and dispassionate voices from a discussion that badly needs that type of voice.
I have a lot of thoughts on this, many of which are not suitable for discussion on LW, but one thing I strongly believe is that people (esp. LWers) should not discuss politics except insofar as it informs a potential decision to emigrate.
As a framework for grounding a discussion, this has a lot of advantages. Most obviously, the decision if and where to emigrate is a near mode question, since most of us could actually emigrate if we wanted. Secondly, it grounds the discussion in solid facts, instead of airy conceptual speculation (“is Trump a racist?” becomes “will Trump hurt or help the economy?”). Emigration decisions are less judgmental: if I think Singapore is the best country, and some else says Sweden is better, then we simply conclude that I should move to SG and he should move to SE, not that one or the other is a bad person. Rationalists who spend a lot of time discussing sociopolitics are mostly failing to solve a bounded-rationality problem, since most of us will never influence the rest of society, so the time we spend thinking about it is largely wasted. Finally, at least for Americans, it reminds us that in spite of the apparently catastrophic state of our politics, the US is still a pretty good country overall.
I agree with this:
But I disagree with this:
and this:
It seems to me that the culture is influenced by discussion (for example, it is hard for me to believe that the discussion that took place on social media over the past year had no influence on the US election outcome). By recommending that LWers refrain from participating in political discussion, it seems to me that you are just removing a set of (relatively) rational, reflective and dispassionate voices from a discussion that badly needs that type of voice.