I think of it as more that to solve political-type problems that require power, you have to be the kind of person who is motivated to get and keep power. Which is not to say that such people are necessarily evil, but that there are risks involved in trusting them implicitly.
Stang's more of a cynic than I am, though.
I thought the bit about "debunkers" was a bit over the line. But there's a bit of truth to it--I'm generally fond of the organized skeptic movement, but it tends to attract these monomaniacal sorts who see themselves as carrying the standard of Reason, Technology, Freedom and the Future against a stupid public, and this Moe-ish attitude drives them to occasionally slip over the edge into judging the truth of statements by these tribal markers. That's how, for instance, Robert Sheaffer, who is great when he's talking about UFOs, ended up saying stupid things about how feminists don't care about Muslim oppression of women, and how Penn Jillette took professional shill Steven Milloy as an authority on secondhand smoke. God knows I've fallen into this kind of trap myself, and it was usually when I was thinking too much about the need to fix the world.
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Date: 2008-01-27 02:07 am (UTC)Stang's more of a cynic than I am, though.
I thought the bit about "debunkers" was a bit over the line. But there's a bit of truth to it--I'm generally fond of the organized skeptic movement, but it tends to attract these monomaniacal sorts who see themselves as carrying the standard of Reason, Technology, Freedom and the Future against a stupid public, and this Moe-ish attitude drives them to occasionally slip over the edge into judging the truth of statements by these tribal markers. That's how, for instance, Robert Sheaffer, who is great when he's talking about UFOs, ended up saying stupid things about how feminists don't care about Muslim oppression of women, and how Penn Jillette took professional shill Steven Milloy as an authority on secondhand smoke. God knows I've fallen into this kind of trap myself, and it was usually when I was thinking too much about the need to fix the world.