This is the most infuriating move in the rationalist / “high
decoupler” arsenal - to respond to a data-based assertion with “what
if?” based on some data the initial claimant didn’t provide,
but to do no further research. It treats a properly phrased question as
a valid critique. It puts an imaginative skeptic on par with a diligent
investigator. It’s armchair fantasy.
Presuming the user has access to the same search engines
available to most English-speaking countries, it would take 30 seconds
to Google “world happiness report” and find out that, per the 2019 report, Denmark,
Norway, and Finland were ahead of Sweden already. So this
commenter is not just evincing polite skepticism - they’re implicitly
making the extraordinary claim that a 5X death rate might actually make
a country happier on net.
“Ah, but those are 2019 figures”, the skeptic says. “We can’t
possibly judge until we have 2020 data.” Okay, fi-i-ine, but this is
also not a skeptically neutral stance - it’s an affirmative defense of
the status quo.
The key to remember when you find yourself in the unenviable position of having a discussion with a rationalist is that they never, ever do the legwork. Why would they, when they can just Bayes it out?
Also it could be worth mentioning that measuring "happiness" or any kind of vague trait based on self-reports and ranking those reports doesn't make fucking sense and is just physics envy
iirc, people in the rationalist sphere have linked to people saying this kind of thing about the [democracy index](https://samzdat.com/2018/03/26/enter-a-search-term-e-g-democracy/) and even [an economy index before](https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/c4jv3s/the_heritage_foundation_economic_freedom_index_is/). So they should have known better.
>2) "Ah, but those are 2019 figures", the skeptic says. "We can't possibly judge until we have 2020 data." Okay, fi-i-ine, but this is also not a skeptically neutral stance - it's an affirmative defense of the status quo.
I'm getting weird Nazi vibes from the idea that society would be happier if its elderly died off.
I wonder what the happiness index looks like in a country filled with
people who believe that there exists some finite number of happiness
index points for which they would gladly forsake your life.
Whoa, slow down. I thought Sweden was a failed state full of sharia
law no-go zones where Muslim rape gangs ruled the streets and
perpetrated grenade attacks against hot dog stands on a daily basis. Now
it’s the happiest place on earth? I can’t keep up!
This is the most infuriating move in the rationalist / “high decoupler” arsenal - to respond to a data-based assertion with “what if?” based on some data the initial claimant didn’t provide, but to do no further research. It treats a properly phrased question as a valid critique. It puts an imaginative skeptic on par with a diligent investigator. It’s armchair fantasy.
Presuming the user has access to the same search engines available to most English-speaking countries, it would take 30 seconds to Google “world happiness report” and find out that, per the 2019 report, Denmark, Norway, and Finland were ahead of Sweden already. So this commenter is not just evincing polite skepticism - they’re implicitly making the extraordinary claim that a 5X death rate might actually make a country happier on net.
“Ah, but those are 2019 figures”, the skeptic says. “We can’t possibly judge until we have 2020 data.” Okay, fi-i-ine, but this is also not a skeptically neutral stance - it’s an affirmative defense of the status quo.
Let’s see what the “facts don’t care about your feelings” gang are up to today….
I wonder what the happiness index looks like in a country filled with people who believe that there exists some finite number of happiness index points for which they would gladly forsake your life.
Whoa, slow down. I thought Sweden was a failed state full of sharia law no-go zones where Muslim rape gangs ruled the streets and perpetrated grenade attacks against hot dog stands on a daily basis. Now it’s the happiest place on earth? I can’t keep up!