Perspective
Jun. 7th, 2022 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorI think it's really important to try to think about the ways our biases distort our view of reality. Because even if a conclusion to a chain of reasoning is correct, if the reasoning itself is not correct, it can't be reliably used to draw further correct conclusions. And since we always have to consider what to do in different contexts, happening to come to a correct conclusion through an incorrect chain of reasoning won't necessarily help one correctly navigate other situations.
I think it's very easy to come to an...unrealistic understanding of viewpoints we don't agree with. One place I see this is when people see their own views as complex and nuanced, and representations of those views that are more simplistic as inherently strawmen. Whereas viewpoints that are not agreed with are represented as having more simplistic reasoning. There's an assumption here that complexity correlates with correctness, and that certain conclusions inherently will have more complex, nuanced arguments behind them.
But this is an experiential bias. Because people tend to engage more with arguments for positions they already agree with, even to the point of actively seeking them out, they tend to find more of those complex and nuanced arguments for them. And because it's easier to 'debunk' simple arguments, they tend to see more simplistic arguments for opposing viewpoints. This is why your opponent is always 'strawmanning' your viewpoints. And why you are 'strawmanning' theirs. It's not that there's no one who necessarily adopts these simpler perspectives, thus it's not technically strawmanning, but that invalidating or railing against them is largely a waste of time.
I think it's very easy to come to an...unrealistic understanding of viewpoints we don't agree with. One place I see this is when people see their own views as complex and nuanced, and representations of those views that are more simplistic as inherently strawmen. Whereas viewpoints that are not agreed with are represented as having more simplistic reasoning. There's an assumption here that complexity correlates with correctness, and that certain conclusions inherently will have more complex, nuanced arguments behind them.
But this is an experiential bias. Because people tend to engage more with arguments for positions they already agree with, even to the point of actively seeking them out, they tend to find more of those complex and nuanced arguments for them. And because it's easier to 'debunk' simple arguments, they tend to see more simplistic arguments for opposing viewpoints. This is why your opponent is always 'strawmanning' your viewpoints. And why you are 'strawmanning' theirs. It's not that there's no one who necessarily adopts these simpler perspectives, thus it's not technically strawmanning, but that invalidating or railing against them is largely a waste of time.