Hoo boy, it’s a trap. That’s the thing about heretical ideas, I can get downvoted and possibly banned from the site from even gesturing in their general direction.
But okay, here goes. Here are some areas where there’s a very large “dead zone” of ideas which surrounds some bad ideas but which may also encompass some good ones too:
1. Intrinsic statistical racial differences or other ideas labelled as racist
2. Intrinsic statistical sexual differences or other ideas labelled as sexist
3. Maybe some aspects of the Holocaust have been exaggerated?
4. (Increasingly) Climate change skepticism
I wish to stress, once again, that all of these heretical regions certainly contain a bunch of bad ideas at their core; but the size of the fenced-off region in each case is so large that it makes you wonder whether some good ideas have been fenced off too.
Yeah, those were some of the ideas I thought about but I found it difficult to find the kind of value PG mentioned from them in the midst of the bad ideas.
Thanks though! I also find myself hesitating to comment or post here to avoid getting downvoted. I would've thought HN would be the most tolerant among online communities of controversial or even obviously wrong ideas.
This post serves as a good illustration of why pursuing heretical ideas per se isn't such a great idea. For every lone genius there are a hundred genocidal racists.
But okay, here goes. Here are some areas where there’s a very large “dead zone” of ideas which surrounds some bad ideas but which may also encompass some good ones too:
1. Intrinsic statistical racial differences or other ideas labelled as racist
2. Intrinsic statistical sexual differences or other ideas labelled as sexist
3. Maybe some aspects of the Holocaust have been exaggerated?
4. (Increasingly) Climate change skepticism
I wish to stress, once again, that all of these heretical regions certainly contain a bunch of bad ideas at their core; but the size of the fenced-off region in each case is so large that it makes you wonder whether some good ideas have been fenced off too.