The Scourge Of Emotionalism

The scourge of emotionalism would not exist without emotionalists--irrational ideas have no power apart from the inept thinkers who adhere to them.  Almost everyone reacts to criticism as if they want to be perceived as rational, yet very few are deserving of such a thing.  In spite of this, the majority of people tend to act as if everyone has a human right to be treated like rational beings, as if by merely being human they somehow deserve to be treated with the same intellectual respect that has been earned by a rationalist's intelligence and commitment to truth.

If someone chooses to not distinguish reasoning and emotion in terms of their cognitive and epistemological natures, they have no right to be treated like intellectual beings whose thoughts should be taken into consideration.  Even if they happen to be right when it comes to their worldviews, their stupidity necessitates that they would be right by sheer happenstance.  There could be no obligation for rationalists to treat them as intellectual equals because they are mere inferiors at best.  No one can deserve to be treated as something they are not, rendering emotionalists undeserving of any treatment that regards them as if they are the full equals of rationalists.

Almost any ideology that does not treat all people as inherently equal is likely to receive criticism for that reason alone, but an individual's concern for truth can render them the superior of someone who lacks that concern.  If truth matters, rationality and commitment to truth--which have nothing to do with a person's gender, race, nationality, size, physical ability, or educational status--make those who have them superior to those who do not.  People are not equal in the sight of the truth, for only a minority ever dares to pursue it.

Someone who cannot identify the most basic form of societal conditioning, that of unintentionally or intentionally promoting a framework of emotionalism, is a reason why rationalists have to live in a world dominated by problems generated by the unintelligent.  There is no other way to minimize the influence of emotionalism than by directly challenging (and perhaps even trampling on) emotionalists.  Anyone is capable of changing for the better, but whoever chooses emotionalism over rationalism has no basis to call themselves equal to rationalists.