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People who reject challenging ideas as stupid without engagement are like intellectual nepobabies (lemmy.ca)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

It’s a good counterpoint. In my first example I definitely have thought about it previously.

In my second example it’s clearly stupid so I’m not going to engage with it. I haven’t thought about it previously (I have now !), but I don’t think that makes me an intellectual nepobaby.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    But by your own admittance, you did think about it once the question was posed, so no, you're not an intellectual nepobaby.

    We have all had past experiences with how hard brick-adjacent substances affect teeth, so it's not discarding it as a knee-jerk reaction. If you went to a dental college, and the professor made the claim before you knew better, I'd assume you'd be interested in finding out how he came to that conclusion, correct?

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Yes, you assume correctly. I would be interested in finding out how they came to that conclusion!

    I think in a different thread, the question of whether the other person was presenting something in good faith came up. I think my original statement was more geared towards dealing with those types of things. I don’t need to engage with everyone if they’re not willing to engage back.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Yeah, I agree that the attempt to engage is the most important aspect. What actually constitutes "engagement" is up to semantic debate.

    I do think that new arguments should be evaluated, even if it's presented in bad faith. I feel that the bad faith nature of the argument is a factor that counts poorly in my evaluation, but it's good to have a solid understanding of the nuance in your stance, even when it comes to the ridiculous.

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