I have the same experience, although it started long before I started reading Less Wrong. And it’s not limited to skepticism; it also strikes when people are expressing what I consider very wrong political or sometimes even artistic views
It has never stricken me as disliking people before; there are people with views I find ridiculous whose company I can enjoy so long as they are not expressing those views at the moment. And it would not bother me if they were just to assert “I’m a fundamentalist / a fascist / whatever”. They would have to be making arguments for their position.
I do not have a good explanation either, but perhaps I view it as a sort of attack. If fundamentalism is true, then atheism is not true, and I am stupid or at least a very bad truth-seeker for being an atheist. Letting yourself be attacked, even indirectly, without defending yourself is hard.
And it would not bother me if they were just to assert “I’m a fundamentalist / a fascist / whatever”. They would have to be making arguments for their position.
,,,
…perhaps I view it as a sort of attack. If fundamentalism is true, then atheism is not true, and I am stupid or at least a very bad truth-seeker for being an atheist.
How do you feel when people make just as bad arguments for positions you agree with? Some possibilities:
Not as bad—you feel associated with the groups under discussion in these arguments, and much of your feeling comes from that.
Worse—you feel tribally aligned with them, and feel stupid by association.
Same—Just right, and your negative reaction is due to the bad forms of the arguments. Alternatively, the two above identities of feeling aligned to the speaker and a member of the group criticized are balanced. Test this by altering your level of kinship with the speaker, such as by pretending you also follow the same sports team.
I have the same experience, although it started long before I started reading Less Wrong. And it’s not limited to skepticism; it also strikes when people are expressing what I consider very wrong political or sometimes even artistic views
It has never stricken me as disliking people before; there are people with views I find ridiculous whose company I can enjoy so long as they are not expressing those views at the moment. And it would not bother me if they were just to assert “I’m a fundamentalist / a fascist / whatever”. They would have to be making arguments for their position.
I do not have a good explanation either, but perhaps I view it as a sort of attack. If fundamentalism is true, then atheism is not true, and I am stupid or at least a very bad truth-seeker for being an atheist. Letting yourself be attacked, even indirectly, without defending yourself is hard.
How do you feel when people make just as bad arguments for positions you agree with? Some possibilities:
Not as bad—you feel associated with the groups under discussion in these arguments, and much of your feeling comes from that.
Worse—you feel tribally aligned with them, and feel stupid by association.
Same—Just right, and your negative reaction is due to the bad forms of the arguments. Alternatively, the two above identities of feeling aligned to the speaker and a member of the group criticized are balanced. Test this by altering your level of kinship with the speaker, such as by pretending you also follow the same sports team.