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by jimbokun 1621 days ago
Righteous indignation can lead to dismissing data conflicting with your current beliefs, and wishing harm on those who disagree with your beliefs.

That is why humility and tolerance are important.

1 comments

Yes — belief can be a nasty thing. But it also drives progress. We "believe" that living entities deserve to be treated with some level of decency, etc. Sure it's possible to hedge our bets with humility and tolerance, but it comes at the cost of the potential upsides.

Our beliefs have led to some horrific outcomes over the past several hundred years. What interests me personally isn't how to believe less in order to avoid risk, it's how to believe in such a way that the resulting actions will improve our lives.