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Lefty Enervation Packet: Difference between revisions
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The '''“Lefty Enervation Packet”''', a concept coined by Eric Weinstein, is the idea of a social script that conditions intellectuals, particularly on the American Left and in the academic/expert class, to dismiss potentially important lines of inquiry using safe, standard responses like: | The '''“Lefty Enervation Packet”''', a concept coined by Eric Weinstein, is the idea of a social script that conditions intellectuals, particularly on the American Left and in the academic/expert class, to dismiss potentially important lines of inquiry using safe, standard responses like: | ||
* | * ''"Correlation does not imply causation."'' | ||
* | * ''"Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence."'' | ||
* | * ''"Data is not the plural of anecdote."'' | ||
* ''"What appears to be coordinated is actually emergent."'' | |||
* ''"What appears to be a pattern is generally random."'' | |||
* ''"What appears to be doable outside of markets isn’t worth attempting because it can’t be coordinated and/or it is against human nature and/or has too many unintended consequences."'' | |||
These statements, while seemingly logically sound in moderation, function like ideological guardrails to: | These statements, while seemingly logically sound in moderation, function like ideological guardrails to: | ||
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* Prevent individuals from using analytical tools (like data or skepticism) against the institutions to which they belong or by which they are employed. | * Prevent individuals from using analytical tools (like data or skepticism) against the institutions to which they belong or by which they are employed. | ||
Eric compares levels of understanding to layers of counter-intuition: | Eric compares levels of understanding to [[Victor-Victoria Problem|layers of counter-intuition]]: | ||
* First-order counter-intuition sees through naive ideas (e.g., mocking flat-Earth beliefs). | * First-order counter-intuition sees through naive ideas (e.g., mocking flat-Earth beliefs). | ||
* Many stop there, failing to pursue second-order skepticism, which could uncover actual conspiracies (e.g., Iran-Contra, Tuskegee, Twitter files). | * Many stop there, failing to pursue second-order skepticism, which could uncover actual conspiracies (e.g., Iran-Contra, Tuskegee, Twitter files). | ||