check in

[Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git] / content / drafts / on-the-public-anti-epistemology-of-dath-ilan.md

diff --git a/content/drafts/on-the-public-anti-epistemology-of-dath-ilan.md b/content/drafts/on-the-public-anti-epistemology-of-dath-ilan.md
index 8a069bc..a1998a4 100644 (file)
--- a/content/drafts/on-the-public-anti-epistemology-of-dath-ilan.md
+++ b/content/drafts/on-the-public-anti-epistemology-of-dath-ilan.md
@@ -137,9 +137,9 @@ Notwithstanding that Rittaen can be Watsonianly assumed to have detailed neurosc
 
 That's not an accusation of hypocrisy. The dath ilani are being consistent. In a Society that prizes freedom-from-infohazards over freedom-of-speech, it makes sense that telling people things would be meddling, but colluding to not tell them, isn't.
 
-### Keltham and the Masochism Coverup
+### Keltham and the Sadism/Masochism Coverup
 
-The story of Keltham's sexuality provides another case study on dath ilani Civilization's predilection for deception. In Golarion, Keltham discovers that he's a sexual sadist, and infers that ["not many sadists in dath ilan know what they are and Civilization tries to prevent us from finding out, because dath ilan does _not_ have masochists."](https://glowfic.com/replies/1735044#reply-1735044) (The notion of an evolved organism preferring pain in any context strikes him as implausible.) Word of God clarifies that masochists do exist, but are very rare, but Keltham's guess is otherwise correct; there is a deliberate effort (by the Keepers?—the exact agency responsible isn't clear) to prevent public knowledge that sadism and masochism even exist.
+The story of Keltham's sexuality provides another case study on dath ilani Civilization's predilection for deception. In Golarion, Keltham discovers that he's a sexual sadist, and infers that ["not many sadists in dath ilan know what they are and Civilization tries to prevent us from finding out, because dath ilan does _not_ have masochists."](https://glowfic.com/replies/1735044#reply-1735044) (The notion of an evolved organism preferring pain in any context strikes him as implausible.) Word of God clarifies that masochists do exist at low frequencies, but that Keltham's guess is otherwise correct; there is a deliberate effort (by the Keepers?—the exact agency responsible isn't clear) to prevent public knowledge that sadism and masochism even exist.
 
 The naïve utilitarian case for the coverup is straightforward. There aren't enough masochists to go around. People with a latent inclination towards sadism are better off not being self-aware about it, because if they knew what they wanted, they would feel sad about not being able to have it.
 
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ Again, [facts are connected to each other](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wyyfF
 
   * transsexualism example
 
-     * "They're better off not knowing about masochists that they can't have" disregards other ways of dealing with it: fantasy, porn, inventing in better sex robots, implications for eugenic policy ...
+   * "They're better off not knowing about masochists that they can't have" disregards other ways of dealing with it: fantasy, porn, inventing in better sex robots, implications for eugenic policy ...
 
 * Difficulties of recursive censorship; do the people who can afford it have to stay in the closet for the benefit of people like Keltham? You could claim that they're so good at coordinating that they negotiated this, but how does the negotiation work when the people the deal allegedly benefits don't know about it?
 
@@ -190,9 +190,21 @@ Or consider how our Society handles pedophilia. This is a sexuality that we do n
 
 ### Replies to Objections
 
+This essay has had some negative things to say about dath ilani culture.
+
+
+
+#### Infohazardville
+
+
+
+
+#### 
+
+
 [TODO—
   * Counterargument: dath ilan lets you immigrate to infohazardville. Reply: sure, I agree that a Society that marginalizes truth-tellers is better than one than executes them. It's still fundamentally fair game for me to point out that it's not consilient with the values of _Overcoming Bias_ readers in 2008.
-  * Counterargument: as a reductio, am I opposed to movie and homework exercise spoilers, too? Reply: No, I recognize spoiler protection as a legitimate class of infohazard. (And AGI/nuclear as an social exfohazard, and threats as a legitimate infohazard.) 
+  * Counterargument: as a reductio, am I opposed to movie and homework exercise spoilers, too? Reply: No, I recognize spoiler protection as a legitimate class of infohazard. (And AGI/nuclear as an social exfohazard, and threats as a legitimate infohazard.) And the concealing eugenics predictions, self-fulfilling prophecy
   * Counterargument: the text says that regular dath ilani do believe "that which can be destroyed" eventually, just not immediately. Reply: this would be more believable with a timetable; I can understand "I don't want to deal with this yet", but there's no indication that Merrin or Keltham are supposed to figure it out.
   * Counterargument: but the gaslighting is supposed to inculcate distrust of authority. Reply: clearly it doesn't work, given how much everyone trusts the government that is lying to them all the time?
   * Numendil's point: dath ilani should look spoiled to us, for the same reason we look spoiled to Golarionites
@@ -200,3 +212,5 @@ Or consider how our Society handles pedophilia. This is a sexuality that we do n
 
 ### Conclusion
 
+> That's the point where it starts to look like somebody is trying to hide something, or fool future generations, and not just respond to a strange threat in a way where they're happy to let you take all the precautions required to make sure nobody's fooling anybody.
+https://www.glowfic.com/replies/1813073#reply-1813073