Ideological Brothers And Sisters

Biological family is more often praised as central to a person's life in ways that friendships of all kinds cannot be.  At its core, this idea rests on the assumption that family ties have some inherent moral value that other relationships do not.  Family is claimed to be more important than friends by default.  In actuality, friendships of a specific kind are inevitably more socially foundational and philosophically important than the involuntary connection shared with blood relatives.  The specific kind of friendship in question is, of course, one centered on mutual recognition of philosophical truths and mutual commitment to personal intimacy.  Friendships, even with one's family members, built on shared true philosophies are by far the more stable, impactful, and existentially comforting type of relationship.

The happenstance connection to biological family members has nothing to do with their standing as intellectual and moral beings.  To believe that unwavering loyalty to family is deserved by nature of being family is to believe that family deserves honor no matter how foolishly, hypocritically, or ineptly they act in an ideological sense.  It is to bestow personal affection that goes beyond a respect for human rights no matter what family members do or fail to do.  In other words, it is the grand facade of pretending like someone can deserve unconditional acceptance and love without having actually done anything at all to deserve such a thing.  This is understood as the idiocy and injustice it is by anyone at all who reflects on the issue without making assumptions for the sake of attempting to salvage personal preferences.

In contrast with biological family members, ideological brothers and sisters are the purest kind of "sibling" precisely because they are chosen, and chosen based on a mutual recognition of and concern for true ideas at that.  Even if one does not know them personally, choosing to embrace a correct idea means one holds to the same foundation as everyone else who rightly embraces that idea, whether or not one will ever meet or hear of them.  Nothing about family entitles someone to special love from their parent, child, sibling, or extended family member simply for being born.  Two rationalists, however, will always have a more significant connection as non-relatives than ideologically opposed siblings and parents have with their actual family.

An unchosen familial connection to someone who is an irrationalistic imbecile is never as ideologically or relationally significant as a shared acknowledgment of truth that unites people despite whatever geographical differences or lack of family ties they might have.  Family is not always a group of people that justly brings out frustration, fury, and rightful indignation, but the examples where family does inspire these things help illustrate why family members cannot deserve to be honored in thought or deed more than their worldviews, actions, and words merit.  Ideological brothers and sisters unified around rationalism and what rationalism leads to, in contrast, have established their superiority to mere blood relatives by having something deeper in common with oneself than biological connections ever could.