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The Null Hypothesis

Considering the opposite is a tool I sometimes use when considering different philosophical positions. It’s not the be-all end-all, just another tool in the toolbox as a complement to other ways of reasoning. Clarification (only for logic nerds): We need to use the scalar negation ("none" vs "some", "all" vs "some not") rather than the polar opposite ("all" vs "none") to help prevent the "excluded middle" fallacy. "Non-zero" is a weird word but one that helps me a lot when thinking. I'm not saying that it's always the case that there's some. "There are some flying teapots in orbit around the sun." I'm just saying that what I'm talking about here is that "it's the case that X" vs "It's any other case than X".

For example, some online rando wrote:

The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters

So when I consider this world view, I can think: “Would the world be a good place if this “virus” was eradicated?“ We are considering "no woke" vs "some woke".

In other words, a wokeless world where kyriarchy is cemented and stamping on a human face—for ever. That would be worse than woke (a.k.a. the intersectionality framework).

Y’all know I’ve said that maybe 90% (or so) of what we leftists do and say is bad and not very thought-through, but that the anti-woke / anti-SJW stuff is so much worse.

Reactionaries

I’ve seen thought evolve and get more nuanced and take more viewpoints into consideration (a.k.a. become more synthesized) over time. The rule that “the only way to know something is to live it” (a.k.a. standpoint epistemology) has softened and it’s becoming clear that it’s both the case that everyone is different and also that there are larger patterns of unfairness.

I think we’re on the right track with a lot of this stuff and I’m glad the old chains are breaking. It’s so different from the old world that it’ll take a while before we find our footing. All that is solid melts into air. Maybe we’re in kind of a Messidor era.