From da8a44c4e7ac2c23b7af6f402bc412b0568f620d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "M. Taylor Saotome-Westlake" Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2019 17:32:06 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] "The Dialectic": adjust the progressive narrative paraphrase If "small effect size" is the Hydeian counter-counternarrative, then the level-one narrative shouldn't talk about them. --- content/2019/the-dialectic.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/2019/the-dialectic.md b/content/2019/the-dialectic.md index 81c20c6..48ca186 100644 --- a/content/2019/the-dialectic.md +++ b/content/2019/the-dialectic.md @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ Growing up as a younger child in an atomized, low-fertility [WEIRD](https://www. It's not clear to what extent people really have [anticipation-controlling](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/a7n8GdKiAZRX86T5A/making-beliefs-pay-rent-in-anticipated-experiences) beliefs in the absence of lived-experience data, but the narratives we _think_ we believe come from what we read. -One such narrative relevant to the topic-focus of this blog is the progressive mainstay, "Psychological sex differences are fake/tiny/socially-constructed." A [metacontrarian](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9kcTNWopvXFncXgPy/intellectual-hipsters-and-meta-contrarianism) counternarrative that I got a lot of exposure to as I sought out ideologically-inconvenient science during my twenties was, "Overeducated out-of-touch liberals _think_ that psychological sex differences are fake/tiny/socially-constructed, until they finally have children of their own and see for themselves how much is innate." As I slowly came to grips with just how deeply the progressive coalition has been _[systematically lying to me](/2017/Jan/im-sick-of-being-lied-to/) about everything I [want](/2017/Feb/a-beacon-through-the-darkness-or-getting-it-right-the-first-time/) and [value](/2017/Dec/theres-a-land-that-i-see-or-the-spirit-of-intervention/)_, I grew to mostly accept the counternarrative. +One such narrative relevant to the topic-focus of this blog is the progressive mainstay, "Psychological sex differences are fake/socially-constructed." A [metacontrarian](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9kcTNWopvXFncXgPy/intellectual-hipsters-and-meta-contrarianism) counternarrative that I got a lot of exposure to as I sought out ideologically-inconvenient science during my twenties was, "Overeducated out-of-touch liberals _think_ that psychological sex differences are fake/socially-constructed, until they finally have children of their own and see for themselves how much is innate." As I slowly came to grips with just how deeply the progressive coalition has been _[systematically lying to me](/2017/Jan/im-sick-of-being-lied-to/) about everything I [want](/2017/Feb/a-beacon-through-the-darkness-or-getting-it-right-the-first-time/) and [value](/2017/Dec/theres-a-land-that-i-see-or-the-spirit-of-intervention/)_, I grew to mostly accept the counternarrative. And so as I've recently gotten some field data thanks to some of my friends actually having children (!!) in the past few years, it has been a _pleasant surprise_ to notice the metacontrarian counternarrative making _failed_ predictions in the form of my friends' kids' individual personalities not being overtly stereotypical: friend's daughter's (age 3) fantasy doll play frequently revolves around epic battles of good guys _vs_. bad guys (with the bad guys regularly being killed or put in jail); other friend's son (age 2) is the subject of adorable anecdotes about wanting to hug and not hurt people, and his current special interest is endlessly rewatching the documentary [_Babies_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babies_(film)). The glorious [Hydeian](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16173891) counter-counternarrative is confirmed: maybe some sex differences are real, but the effect sizes are so small that you really should just treat everyone as individuals, _not_ out of ideological commitments, but because it actually makes sense!! Rah! ⚥ 💖 -- 2.17.1