Episode 338 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following entries to r/unpopularopinion: stupidpieceofshit- writes, “Celebrities are not leaders. Stop expecting them to make statement on every issue”; fallingthroughspace0 writes, “Threatening your daughter’s boyfriend with guns or violence should not be normalized”; emotionalrek writes, “Forced family time is a horrible idea”; somkkeshav555 writes, “Megachurches are cults that scam people and should be cracked down on by law enforcement”; Watermelonlesson-Top writes, “Saying ‘people that stay out of politics, or people that don’t actively fight against something are part of the problem’, is going too far”; FairyChick69 writes, “It is frightening to see how many young Americans are essentially advocating for domestic terrorism against their ideological opponents.”; and Alternative-Coat6972 writes, “Revolution Isn’t Fun. War Isn’t Fun. The People Calling For War and Revolution in the United States Need a Reality Check.”
Tag: logic
In Most Conflicts of Ideas, Socratic Dialogue Beats Research
It is far more efficient to deal with identifying the errors in logic than the errors in fact (though correcting all kinds of errors are important). Logic works by a series of first principles that everyone can learn and no one can evade. Contradictions, fallacies, false equivalencies, and other errors in thinking are much easier to dislodge than disputes over evidence (often evidence can be ambiguous).
"Pandemic Pods" Make Homeschooling Easier For Parents and Profitable for Teachers
Instead of waiting for instructions from authorities, enterprising parents and entrepreneurial teachers are joining forces and taking initiative.
Coronavirus vs. the Non-Identity Problem
If Avengers: Endgame had been released a week later, coronavirus would have never happened; the movie grossed $614M in China, so it must have indirectly changed the space-time positions of a bunch of people in Wuhan. If something alters which humans are born, it can also easily alter which pathogens are born.
Krikorian’s “Category Error”
During our last debate, an audience member asked Mark Krikorian if his arguments for restricting immigration of foreigners were also arguments for restricting the child-bearing of natives. You might think that Mark would insist that native babies are somehow better than foreign adults. How hard could it possibly be to craft such an argument? However, Mark adamantly refused to compare the worths of different kinds of people. Instead, he informed the questioner that his question was based on a “category error.”
Billionaires in a Free Market
Someone else having a billion dollars does no harm to you. Fight for freedom, not against others having arbitrary amounts of money.
Changing Your Beliefs
I used to think people could change their beliefs. I thought if people were presented with better information which showed the flaw in their belief, they would change their belief to fit the new information. I thought the process would be almost automatic.
Spurious Superficiality & ad Hominem, Abusive and Circumstantial (15m) – Episode 011
Episode 011 looks at logical fallacies Spurious Superficiality, ad Hominem (abusive), and ad Hominem (circumstantial).
Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty: The New Republic
I’ve been waiting to read the fifth volume of Murray Rothbard’s Conceived in Liberty for over 30 years. Now my former student Patrick Newman, professor at Florida Southern College, has miraculously undeleted this “lost work.” Patrick’s quasi-archaeological efforts are nothing short of amazing, but how does the actual book hold up?
You Don’t Get Credit for the Moral Advances of Others
Oh, you’re anti-racism, hmm? You believe women should have equal rights? You’re against war? You think Nazis are bad? Good. But that belief (and repeating it on social media, etc) doesn’t make you a hero. Being “more enlightened” than your ancestors in these ways doesn’t actually make you smarter or wiser.