Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Being Misunderstood As A Rationalist

As long as there are more non-rationalists or outright irrationalists than there are rationalists, being misunderstood by non-rationalists will be a common experience for those who look past the trivialities and assumptions many cling to in order to align with reason.  Along with being misunderstood comes being misidentified as having all sorts of philosophical stances that are either contrary to rationalism or not what rationalism inherently entails.  I myself have been misidentified as everything from an anarchist (because I am not a conservative or liberal) to a communist (because I am not an ideological capitalist despite not being against mere capitalism), a pacifist (because I am against randomly assaulting people to "settle" disputes), a tyrant (because theonomy is terrifying to many who think conscience is valid), and an egoist (because I realize that rationalists are superior to non-rationalists)!

All of these things conflict even with the many things I have written or stated about myself to others, as well as with how I live, but even if I had never corrected anyone on such points or said anything about whether or not I am these things, I would not be them.  More significantly, no one needs to speak with others or hear about their perceptions to know their own intentions, beliefs, and standing with respect to rationalism.  The wildly conflicting, emotionalism-driven perceptions of the typical person will almost inevitably drive them to misunderstand a genuine rationalist except perhaps in small, random cases where they haphazardly comprehend something despite having never become a rationalist and forsaken all assumptions, standing on the infallible foundation of logical axioms.  Their outsider perceptions reveal only their own stupidity and do not in any way provide a basis for rationalists to doubt themselves, their sincerity, or their alignment with reason.

A person can always know his or her true beliefs, the logical verifiability of them, which ones are unverifiable or false and why, and the extent of a person's true commitment to or understanding of them.  All it takes it introspection aided by reason, for one's worldview can in its entirety be recognized as one's worldview by simply looking within one's mind.  After all, the contents of one's mind are some of the only universally accessible, absolutely certain things--after and alongside logical axioms and strictly logical truths.  Even if every single other person genuinely misunderstood you, at least you can be totally rationalistic and fully personally devoted to all knowable truths, whether or not anyone else relates, cares, or currently understands when you put this into words.  Being misunderstood by non-rationalists cannot stop a person from deep awareness of and devotion to the truth.

Other people, as they they will most often be irrationalists, might indeed misunderstand you at every turn if you are a rationalist.  They might go so far as go hate you on the basis of their idiotic misconceptions and assumptions, which they of course will make in some way with regard to this or some other matter or else they would already be rationalists too.  Hate them for their stupidity without mistreating them, and they will think you are the irrational or evil one.  When they misunderstand and hate you for things you do not even believe, they might very well think they are the ones in the right intellectually and/or morally!  This is when it can be personally empowering or helpful for rationalists to remember that just as they do not need to care about what literal insects think (if they are indeed conscious) in order to understand reason, they do not need to care about what non-rationalists think, as they are intellectual insects.  If you can bring yourself to not personally care whatsoever about other people's mere subjective perceptions while still caring about reason and morality, you can find the ultimate social freedom.

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