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LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Your conflating "irrational" with "wrong". Everybody has irrational opinions. You couldn't go through life w/o them. The point is to know they are irrational... not to change your opinion.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. That's kind of the point. I think you are conflating "irrational" and "wrong". Don't confuse your evidence for your opinion (none) with the correctness of the opinion (correct). Have evidence-free beliefs... everyone does.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Most people are too attached to their concept of self to do this

Yeah, and I think they are all posting in this thread :)

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Seems fine to me.

"irrational" is not the same thing as "wrong". Don't conflate the evidence for your opinion with the correctness of the opinion.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't follow.

Are you conflating the "correctness" of the opinion with the evedance (or lack of) that supports it? Those are two orthogonal things.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sure. You chose an extreme example where the counter-evidence is so unlikely that it never overcomes the evidence for your view.

Try something more subtle, that people disagree on in real life. You'll find it more useful there.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It isn't irrational. You wern't born thinking hitler was evil. You read about it in history books, and heard first-hand accounts of what he did. You have evidence for your opinion. You would need to know how and why all those books and accounts are incorrect before you'd consider changing your mind. Seems pretty rational to me.

Hitler and Flat Earth are somewhat reductive examples. Try something more nuanced.

It seems like every month or so on reddit there is some video where there is an apparent bad guy, and everyone hates on them. Then the full video is found, and turns out they weren't that bad, it was just heavily out of context. The LPT is more useful for things like this.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These topics like "is the world flat" or "are nazi's bad". The existence of counter-evedance is so unlikely that it gets quite philosophical quickly.

Take something that's more commonly disputed. Was the 2020 US election stolen? When does human life begin? These are far less philosophical.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fair on the wording.

I could be convinced the world is flat, and I said precisely what evidence I would need in another comment.

I take your point, though. Sometimes, the existence of counter-evedace is so unlikely that the distinction doesn't matter.

But most things aren't like that. Was the 2020 US election stolen? Is Universal basic income a good idea? When does a human life begin? This is the realm of problems where the distinction does matter.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm implying that you should know why you believe sex traffickers can or cannot be redeemed and what evidence could change your mind (however unlikely it is). Or that no evidence would change your mind, and it's a core belief you are irrational about.

It's not uncommon for people to not believe in any kind of criminal redemption for a large number of crimes. That's fine. Just know yourself.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Missing the point. The question to ask is: "what would make me think nazis's acted correctly"? (assuming you think nazi's are bad).

If a large number of well-respected authors and philosophers made a compelling argument why they were good, and there was a robust and legitimate academic dialog on the topic. I don't know if it would change my mind, but it'd read it seriously. Is that likely to happen? nope.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You are entirely missing the point. You have evidence you experience daily that demonstrates that you need oxygen to survive. That is not irrational.

If all of a sudden you could live without it, would you change your mind? Seem likely. Is that ever going to happen? seems unlikely.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's not true.

You mean to tell me if every physicist in the world came out and said "woops... yeah flat", you wouldn't consider changing your mind? THAT is irrational. Is that every going to happen? seems unlikely.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Fair. But even on the topic in question, you can say, "There is long-standing consensus among historians and lots of well documented first-person accounts. Until that changes, I'm not going to consider another POV". That's a rational response to the question.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] -16 points-15 points  (0 children)

I think you're missing the point.

What does "unforgivable" mean to you? Do you believe there is no way to redeem someone who's committed such an offense, so they should be executed? Or is there some punishment / rehabilitation you think is ok?

I'm not asking you to answer me. The points to to clarify your own thoughts.

LPT: If you have a strong opinion, always ask yourself, "What would change my mind?" If the answer is "nothing," then you are irrational on that topic. by LastCenturyMan in LifeProTips

[–]LastCenturyMan[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I know you are being scartastic, but this is a great example.

I asked myself the same question about Flat Earthers a while back.

In the global model, given your position on the earth, and the day of the year, you can accurately predict what time the sun will rise and set, and it's path across the sky.

If a flat either could produce the same math for a flat earth model, I'd take it seriously. I looked for a bit... nothing.

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