Replying to Avatar Lyn Alden

It's actually kind of shocking how polarized my Twitter/X feed has become.

So many people who were technical developers, capital allocators, thoughtful geopolitical commentators, etc are now just outright tribalists.

-Some of them are direct anti-Palestinian. Not just anti-Hamas, but outright against Muslims existing in Israel.

-Some of them are direct anti-Jew. Not just anti-Zionist in the sense of being critical of the modern state of Israel and its border rights. But instead just like, actually anti-Jew.

I hate to see this. The truth is not necessarily in the middle (ie "moderation" may itself be wrong by assuming the middle is correct), but perhaps more concerningly, many people can't even steelman their opponent's view. In the best of worlds, you should be able to explain the most intelligent version of your opponent's view, and then deconstruct it by explaining how it's wrong.

I see little of that. Hardly anyone can do it. My feed is now mostly like 90 IQ tribalist stuff, even from 120 IQ people. It's sad to see. I rarely see anyone who can steelman the Palestinian case and then explain why Israel is right, or steelman the Israeli case and explain why the Palestinians are right.

I have my own personal views, first and foremost toward the civilian children, and secondarily toward land rights, but perhaps my biggest view thirdly is to criticize the sheer polarization that has occurred. Everyone is sure, but few can particularly explain the dilemma in detail in such way that acknowledges their smartest opponents views and then builds their own case against that. Almost everyone is instead polarized and tribal now.
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Sovereign Being 2y ago

It’s disheartening when you realise that many smart people who wake up to and adopt one idea (Bitcoin) appear to be incapable of forming nuanced opinions on certain other subjects. I wonder how much time people have and are putting into Bitcoin. Have they even dug into the history that underpins why we needed Bitcoin in the first place, or are they interested in it just for the money?

They often have no capacity to discuss the merits and potential faults of their positions. They ignore their cognitive biases, and instead resort to regurgitating lines of propaganda they picked up along the way. As long as it lines up with their world view, that’s all that matters.

The funny thing is I used to be massively pro-Israel. Then I made friends and had discussions with Muslims who have been to Palestine and explained their experiences to me, and it very much changed my perspective. I started researching the topic more. It’s hard to have a fixed, unchanging opinion on anything when there is so much information to consider.

I was raised catholic, become atheist in my late teens through to my early 30s, and then I feel like, for the first time, I began to honestly examine the merits of other positions. What I am quite sure of is:

- Killing innocent people, especially kids, should never be acceptable or justifiable.

- Peace should always be the primary goal.

Criticism of Israel’s action is not antisemitism. The labelling of any criticism of zionists as antisemitism is incredibly dishonest. That kind of thing probably creates more anti semitism, ironically.

I hate no people based on their race. My current view is that it is those who rule over us who are our enemies, until proven otherwise. The rest of us are their victims. Victim consciousness is taught to people, it’s a mindset. It’s also not true, but it works great for controlling the minds of large groups of people.

Beyond this issue, it becomes clear who is capable of entertaining what could be seen as the craziest of ideas, without resorting to fallacious reasoning and emotional outbursts.

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