Comment by visarga
1 year ago
I thought "surely, when their lives will be at stake, people will do the prudent thing and trust doctors", but no, we were not that smart. Some ideas can be inflicting self-harm and continue getting support even in the face of grave consequences.
But you're not arguing against any particular idea. You're arguing against ideas based on how they change people's minds. But, a person's mind is changed by idea dependent of their personality and on the contents of their mind when they hear that idea, so in principle any idea can change a person's mind in any direction. Some people hear "vaccines cause autism" and conclude "I should not vaccinate my children", while others conclude "this country needs better education". Some people reach "I should not vaccinate my children" after hearing some other idea. Some people see The Terminator and think "I should work to prevent the advancement of AI", while others think "I should go into AI to prevent this from happening", and yet others think "ha, what a silly movie". Some people will reach "I should work to prevent the advancement of AI". So, like I said, you argument is one against culture as a whole. If the fact that hearing an idea will convince people of X opinion is a good reason to stop the spread of that idea, then it's also a good reason to stop the spread of all ideas.