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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Stupidity is funny until it morphs into pointless cruelty
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
Can you read French? If so, this book is a great thesis against the so-called “folie douce”. The central tenet is that there is no such thing as an innocuous stupid belief (“little folly”). Stupidity and superstitions (which go hand in hand) form a spectrum but we have to fight back against all forms, even the presumably benign ones, before they lead to tremendously harmful outcomes. https://www.librest.com/livres/il-n-y-a-pas-de-folies-douces-alain-cuniot_0-291564_9782915312058.html
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Adam Kraft
@kraft
Interesting. I make fun of my wife for reading horoscopes — glad to know I’m fighting the good fight!
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Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
What gets me is that every single person I’ve spoken with who consumes horoscopes says they don’t really believe in them and reads them just for fun. I don’t buy that. Nobody reads that trite Barnum effect nonsense without at least wanting to believe in the most flattering predictions they cherry pick for themselves. The problem with it is that if you do believe in even a tiny shred of this nonsense, then it becomes that much easier to pull on that shred, unravel reality, and replace it with your own fantastical delusion. Reality is either self-consistent or it isn’t. There’s no such thing as “a little magic”. It’s either all or nothing.
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