Wouldn’t insincere ones be harder to really convince they’re doing anything wrong (in terms of actions taken, not words spoken), since they don’t care whether or not they’re doing it right? Insincere ones might accept criticism and then not make any changes, whereas sincere ones might fight harder against criticism but actually make real changes if convinced. There may be some usefulness in contacting cryonics organizations about criticisms against them and eliciting responses, as well as eliciting evidence to back up responses.
Not in my experience—the insincere can be convinced to fall back to a different not-necessarily-sincere position, whereas the sincere tend to take an attack on their beliefs or actions as an attack on themselves.
The apposite consideration here is Dumas’ razor, “I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because rogues sometimes rest.”
(In the original French, “J’aime mieux les méchants que les imbéciles, parce qu’ils se reposent.” Or various other renderings, e.g. “Je préfère le méchant à l’imbécile, parce que l’imbécile ne se repose jamais” [”… because the imbecile never rests”] or “Si je devais faire un choix, entre les méchants et les imbéciles, ce serait les méchants, parce qu’ils se reposent.” It appears to be something Dumas fils said in response to Victor Hugo saying “Les méchants envient et haïssent; c’est leur manière d’admirer” [“The wicked envy and hate; it’s their form of admiration”] and others liked and wrote down, not something he wrote, but it’s a popular quote for a reason.)
Wouldn’t insincere ones be harder to really convince they’re doing anything wrong (in terms of actions taken, not words spoken), since they don’t care whether or not they’re doing it right? Insincere ones might accept criticism and then not make any changes, whereas sincere ones might fight harder against criticism but actually make real changes if convinced. There may be some usefulness in contacting cryonics organizations about criticisms against them and eliciting responses, as well as eliciting evidence to back up responses.
Not in my experience—the insincere can be convinced to fall back to a different not-necessarily-sincere position, whereas the sincere tend to take an attack on their beliefs or actions as an attack on themselves.
The apposite consideration here is Dumas’ razor, “I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because rogues sometimes rest.”
(In the original French, “J’aime mieux les méchants que les imbéciles, parce qu’ils se reposent.” Or various other renderings, e.g. “Je préfère le méchant à l’imbécile, parce que l’imbécile ne se repose jamais” [”… because the imbecile never rests”] or “Si je devais faire un choix, entre les méchants et les imbéciles, ce serait les méchants, parce qu’ils se reposent.” It appears to be something Dumas fils said in response to Victor Hugo saying “Les méchants envient et haïssent; c’est leur manière d’admirer” [“The wicked envy and hate; it’s their form of admiration”] and others liked and wrote down, not something he wrote, but it’s a popular quote for a reason.)