RationalWiki's article on the Theory

[pbrower2a]

(06-15-2021, 03:49 AM)Captain Genet Wrote: I used to adore the sceptic community: Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Co. Now I see them as heirs of the Enlightenment mantle, which means they cannot see beyond Liberalism. Since S&H doesn't see the individual as making 100% rational and independent decisions, but yielding to social mood, it is out of scope of Liberalism and belongs more to Communitarian reasoning. The sceptics are mostly young single men who are radical individualists by nature and think about the world in terms of linear improvement because they can see linear growth in video game resolution and processor speed.

The skeptics have their value in debunking such nonsense as creationism, Holocaust denial, racism, and most conspiracy theories. The Howe and Strauss theory clearly is much more rational than any of the garbage that I enumerated in the previous sentence, but it still has gaps. Howe and Strauss connect far more things (maternal fertility, mass culture, crime rates, alcohol consumption, business formation, labor-management relations, patterns of personal and institutional investment, tax rates, and the character of political life. 

The skeptics are extremely good at debunking cranks, extremists, and scammers. Rationalwiki is much less neutral-point-of-view than is Wikipedia and thus allows more room for quirkiness. Here's an edit that I made on "dog". Don't get me wrong; I love dogs, as they are often more reliable friends than fellow humans.    

== How creatures other than humans perceive dogs ==

Basically one must be human, perhaps a cat, or of course another dog to avoid seeing a dog as "the Big Bad Wolf". In fact, all that keeps a dog from being a [[man-eater]] is the good behavior of both human and dog.

Dog behavior ranges from very docile to extremely aggressive and intimidating, and such can change quickly. Even a Yorkshire terrier, one of the smallest breeds of dogs, has scared off a bear. <ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/26/deborah-epstein-dog-bear_n_3660313.html</ref> Criminals have good cause to avoid encounters with an animal that people can never outrun, that can overpower all humans, and has sharp claws and teeth with muscles that can give horrible scratches and bites. This is especially true with K-9 units that many police departments have. 



The caption reads: Multiple dogs are potentially as lethal as a bear or a big cat (like the tiger pictured above) that is about the same mass as the collection of dogs.

I created that caption, and it is basically true. Ask sheep-raising interests whether they want any unfamiliar dog around their sheep. To many animals that are potential prey, dogs might as well be "lions and tigers and bears -- oh my!" Dog claws scare me, as a dog scratch once sent me to the emergency room for an infection of the surprisingly-deep laceration.