Progress can only come through dialogue and mutual discovery

An interesting epistemic discussion.

It is impossible to debunk all these sorts of ridiculous claims, because they are often ridiculous in subtle ways. In this thread, I merely debunk one of the articles linked to support this entirely unjustified statement (the "they're wrong" statement). https://t.co/eOn0Zr10aS

— Lee Jussim (@PsychRabble) February 12, 2019

Click to see thread.

I have been thinking about this a lot over the past year. How do you maintain cultural integrity and civil discourse in the face of either profound ignorance or, more frequently, people whose priors are so deeply rooted that they cannot even be examined. Those priors are carrying all the weight in the arguments they make and yet they ring-fence the priors so that they cannot be examined.

It takes the form of "I assume X. If X, then Y necessarily follows. Don't test X."

Essentially, usually unconsciously, they have abandoned all commitment to open discourse and have presented a single statement which they wish to coercively insist is true without having to actually defend the argument.

If you engage, and they are so wedded to their unstated priors, you give legitimacy to their position while wasting time. Yet progress can only come through dialogue and mutual discovery. It is a conundrum.