[ExI] Lest We Do Harm (was Race Biology)

[Lee Corbin]

Damien writes

> Since we know the evil consequences of easily making such
> "racial" linkages, there are sound motives to walk very carefully
> in using such shortcuts when they are really superficial or due to
> accidents of culture and political choice.

But how are we to know beforehand that they're superficial? That's
what is being debated, after all.

If you are a quite exceptional human being---but not a politician,
famous pundit, or policy maker, then what you believe and what
you say do not really relate to the health of society[1].

It's a fallacy to think otherwise, perhaps related to the "illusion
of central position".

I am here on Extropians to know and speak the truth, to have
my ideas criticized, and in exchange to criticize the ideas of
others, all in accordance with the tenets of PCR (Pan Critical
Rationalism).

We here, therefore, have no need here to "walk softly" near dangerous
ideas.

I'll try to say what is true, regardless of the puny effects my words
have on "society", and I think others here ought to do likewise.

As Kuromaku mentioned to me offlist, any efforts to deny reality
tend in the long run to cause more harm than good anyway.

Lee

[1] But if you are a very *typical* individual in most ways, and have a
very conventional outlook about societal issues, then what you think
does matter, because there are a lot of people who think exactly the
same way you do. In this case, it may even make logical sense to vote.