I utterly loathe Hanlon’s razor. It’s peak naivete, especially when it’s applied to groups of people that have ulterior motives - like business interests. It essentially gives companies a carte blanche to do evil shit, and when they get caught, all they have to do is blush and say “oops, how could that have possibly happened???!” But in reality, they were just doing some sort of self-serving behavior and hoping they could get away with it. And of course, they’ll just end up doing it again a few months or years later on when the attention has died away.
Moral of the story: Hanlon’s razor does not apply to corporations or other business interests. If it’s your neighbors, well maybe give them the benefit of the doubt. If it’s a multinational conglomerate, hell no, fuck that. Assume guilt 100% of the time.
I consider the whole set of razors to be pseudologic. Just because something helps pick a conclusion regardless of context doesn’t mean it helps pick the correct conclusion.
I also don’t get why they seem to be popular with people who like to act scientific, because they seem very unscientific to me.
But yeah, hanlon’s is specifically stupid and I suspect it was popularized precisely because it advocates a default level of reasonable doubt for malicious people to hide in.
I also don’t get why they seem to be popular with people who like to act scientific, because they seem very unscientific to me.
They absolutely are. And it’s very aggravating to see people immediately invoking it without a second thought. They just assume it to be some absolute universal truth that should be accepted without question. But why?? How is that any different from religion at that point?
The paradox of intolerance is the one that’s been getting to me lately. People forgot that its a paradox and think it’s justification for them to attack people they disagree with.
corollaries to Hanlon’s razor include:
This as a life philosophy leads to violent road rage.
If there is an established pattern of malice, it is stupidity to attribute it to stupidity.
Ah, yes. The Nolnah’s Razor.
Nolnah knew
Use the first version with personal relationships. Dont let paranoia ruin your social circle.
With politics, assume the worst.
It’s usually a mixture of both. A lot of malicious people are also very stupid.
Not really they’re always motivated by self-interest and corruption. For example when Nick Shirley makes an obviously fake documentary about “fraud in Minnesota” he’s not just “doing it because he’s dumb”. He’s doing it because he’s receiving massive amounts of money to demonize that population.
Sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice
