Ignorance & Heuristics
- dejongistani
- May 6, 2018
- 3 min read
A heuristic, or rule of thumb, according to Merriam-Webster is "involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem solving by experimental and especially trial and error methods." In real terms this means that visible and easily discernible characteristics are used to represent information that is harder to detect, less visible or not directly observable. To a social justice warrior the easily discernible characteristic of a white male is the heuristic for evil. A social justice warrior associates the white male and whiteness with evil in my opinion due to ignorance but in their mind it's due to experience (equivalent to trial and error methods).
What that means is that heuristics do not take into account the individual situation you are dealing with and instead use past experience to guide present actions. There is an appropriate use of heuristics and it is in human nature to use them to make quick decisions. The saying, "When you hear hoof beats think horses not zebras" is an example of heuristics that means you should associate hoofbeats with a common source, horses, as opposed to the uncommon zebra. You can also think of the presence of dark clouds and a drop in temperature as a sign it’s going to rain so if you see dark clouds and the temperature drops preparing for rain is a good rule of thumb or heuristic to follow.
While here are appropriate uses of heuristics there are also inappropriate uses. Dealing with people as individuals is generally an inappropriate use as the actions and beviors of individuals are not discernible from outward appearance or social group membership. Treating convicted criminals with suspicion is a rational action as their past actions are a reasonable indication of character but treating all people of the same same race, gender or similar appearance as criminals is wrong because nothing about those characteristics is a driver of behavior or is a past action that may reoccur.
Using this framework of appropriate and inappropriate use of heuristics I find the leftist online, in government and in the media to default to the inappropriate use when it suits their needs. A great example is David Duke’s support for President Trump. Trump is for Americans first, one would think that is an uncontravertial view in America, but the leftist media decries it as problematic because a known racist David Duke agrees. The ignorance or maliciousness of that line of logic cannot be understated. Imagine if every opinion that was held by racist such as David Duke or Louis Farakan were not allowed to be held by non-racist politicians, where would we be? Would all heterosexual politicians be racist because David Duke and Louis Farakan are heterosexual? I follow Hanlon’s razor which says, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” so I’m inclined to believe the leftist are just stupid. I only hope that I’m not proven wrong as if this inappropriate use of heuristics is intentional then we live in a truly dystopian world where only a force and violence will restore reason and logic. That is the last resort and would be a tragedy.
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