To be honest, I didnât intend to focus primarily on what an exclusionary belief is, as much as highlight that many controversial beliefs are not exclusionary. If we want to get more precise about it, Iâm saying something like: all the objectionable beliefs here are beliefs about people who are also (perhaps prospectively) participating in the discussion, and this is a key thing that distinguishes them from like 95% of controversial (in the sense of heated disagreement) beliefs, and thatâs a whole lot of baby that we risk throwing out with the bathwater if we keep saying âcontroversialâ like the controversy itself is the problem.
There are many anti-nuclear and green energy activists who would not attend a conference with a speaker who has advocated nuclear energy as a necessary part of the transition away from fossil fuels. There are surely researchers who do gain of function research, or who view it as essential to protecting against future pandemics, who would not attend a conference with a speaker advocating against gain of function research.
I think this is mostly just arguing over hypotheticals, so itâs pretty impossible to adjudicate, but I want to highlight a difference between âIâm not going to this conference because itâs a waste of time, because they are discussing ideas that are obviously (to me) wrongâ, and âIâm not going to this conference because itâs supporting and strengthening people who are actively hostile towards me, on the basis of characteristics that I canât change, and is thereby either hostile to me itself or at least indifferent to hostility towards meâ.
To be honest, I didnât intend to focus primarily on what an exclusionary belief is, as much as highlight that many controversial beliefs are not exclusionary. If we want to get more precise about it, Iâm saying something like: all the objectionable beliefs here are beliefs about people who are also (perhaps prospectively) participating in the discussion, and this is a key thing that distinguishes them from like 95% of controversial (in the sense of heated disagreement) beliefs, and thatâs a whole lot of baby that we risk throwing out with the bathwater if we keep saying âcontroversialâ like the controversy itself is the problem.
I think this is mostly just arguing over hypotheticals, so itâs pretty impossible to adjudicate, but I want to highlight a difference between âIâm not going to this conference because itâs a waste of time, because they are discussing ideas that are obviously (to me) wrongâ, and âIâm not going to this conference because itâs supporting and strengthening people who are actively hostile towards me, on the basis of characteristics that I canât change, and is thereby either hostile to me itself or at least indifferent to hostility towards meâ.