There are many movements which would benefit from more rationality. But there are also many movements which would be harmed by more rationality. I wonder whether the latter have already formed a silent coalition...
My friends have a proverb: “The easiest way to recognize an intelligent person is that in the moment they enter the room, all the idiots instinctively join against them.” And it often seems to work (possible selection bias here).
I can imagine that when a person enjoys something irrational (horoscopes, some political movement, etc.) and they often get opposed rationally, it may condition them to hate anything that sounds too rational. Later when they hear someone using rational arguments, even if it is completely unrelated to their favourite cause, they get angry.
That’s a sure sign that your friends aren’t very bright. Charisma is itself a learned skill, and intelligent people very often possess it. While it is not a sure sign of intelligence, if everyone doesn’t like you, then you’re in trouble.
“All the idiots” is a pretty arbitrary term, and it is also really questionable—how do you define idiots, then? As those who disagree with you?
Manipulating idiots is actually generally easier than manipulating average people, and idiots are not any sort of single group—low-functioning persons often fight amongst themselves.
I agree that one can learn skills to impress people, and those skills are very useful. Also that intelligent people have an advantage in this: the intelligence itself is impressive, and can help learn those skills faster.
On the other hand, humans are not automatically strategic (even the intelligent ones), “charisma” is not a one-dimensional value (different things impress different people), and there is also some tension… let’s say it this way: most good scientists would fail doing a car salesman’s job, and most car salesmen would fail to do good science.
The quoted proverb does not use LW terminology, so “idiots” in this context means highly irrational people, and “an intelligent person” means both intelligent and rational person. The translation would be that irrational people are surprisingly quick at detecting rational people and making coalitions against them.
The problem with “manipulating idiots” is when you are also trying to accomplish a different goal with a different audience at the same time. For example your audience is 50% reasonable people and 50% “idiots” mixed together, and you are trying to explain a reasonable plan to those reasonable people… but either you speak to the reasonable people and the “idiots” interrupt you, or you manipulate the “idiots” and the reasonable people see the problems with your arguments.
There are many movements which would benefit from more rationality. But there are also many movements which would be harmed by more rationality. I wonder whether the latter have already formed a silent coalition...
My friends have a proverb: “The easiest way to recognize an intelligent person is that in the moment they enter the room, all the idiots instinctively join against them.” And it often seems to work (possible selection bias here).
I can imagine that when a person enjoys something irrational (horoscopes, some political movement, etc.) and they often get opposed rationally, it may condition them to hate anything that sounds too rational. Later when they hear someone using rational arguments, even if it is completely unrelated to their favourite cause, they get angry.
That’s a sure sign that your friends aren’t very bright. Charisma is itself a learned skill, and intelligent people very often possess it. While it is not a sure sign of intelligence, if everyone doesn’t like you, then you’re in trouble.
“All the idiots” is a pretty arbitrary term, and it is also really questionable—how do you define idiots, then? As those who disagree with you?
Manipulating idiots is actually generally easier than manipulating average people, and idiots are not any sort of single group—low-functioning persons often fight amongst themselves.
I agree that one can learn skills to impress people, and those skills are very useful. Also that intelligent people have an advantage in this: the intelligence itself is impressive, and can help learn those skills faster.
On the other hand, humans are not automatically strategic (even the intelligent ones), “charisma” is not a one-dimensional value (different things impress different people), and there is also some tension… let’s say it this way: most good scientists would fail doing a car salesman’s job, and most car salesmen would fail to do good science.
The quoted proverb does not use LW terminology, so “idiots” in this context means highly irrational people, and “an intelligent person” means both intelligent and rational person. The translation would be that irrational people are surprisingly quick at detecting rational people and making coalitions against them.
The problem with “manipulating idiots” is when you are also trying to accomplish a different goal with a different audience at the same time. For example your audience is 50% reasonable people and 50% “idiots” mixed together, and you are trying to explain a reasonable plan to those reasonable people… but either you speak to the reasonable people and the “idiots” interrupt you, or you manipulate the “idiots” and the reasonable people see the problems with your arguments.