rationalist

Following your intuition

She doesn't go by thee law because she's a rationalist.

rationalist by 888LoveisLove888 August 27, 2022

Rationalist Violence

A specific subtype of rational violence associated with online rationalist communities (often influenced by LessWrong, effective altruism, or neoreaction). Rationalist violence weaponizes Bayesian reasoning, expected utility calculations, and “epistemic hygiene” to dismiss experiences, emotions, or values that don’t fit the framework. It can manifest as demanding “error corrections” for personal stories, rejecting art as “inefficient signaling,” or labeling spiritual experiences as “cognitive biases.” The violence lies in reducing the richness of human life to a spreadsheet and then attacking anyone who refuses to be reduced.

Example: “When she spoke of her religious conversion, he interrupted with a lecture on ‘confirmation bias’ and ‘Bayesian priors’—rationalist violence, treating a life-changing experience as a statistical error to be debugged.”

Rationalist Violence by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 15, 2026

Rationalist Violence

Physical, psychological, or structural harm inflicted on individuals or groups because their ways of knowing are deemed “irrational.” Rationalist violence can include forced conversion to secular norms, suppression of religious practices, pathologizing of non‑rational forms of expression, and online harassment of those who rely on intuition or faith. It is often perpetrated by institutions (schools, courts, medical systems) that enforce a narrow rationalist orthodoxy.

Example: “The school expelled a student for citing her cultural traditions in a class discussion, calling it ‘irrational thinking’—rationalist violence, punishing difference in the name of reason.”

Rationalist Alienation

The experience of being disconnected from one’s own emotional, intuitive, or embodied self due to pressure to conform to a hyper‑rationalist worldview. It is the feeling that one’s own feelings are “illogical,” one’s intuitions are “biases,” and one’s body is just a machine. Rationalist alienation is common in communities that prize pure reason and dismiss emotional intelligence, leading to burnout, depression, and a sense of living as a disembodied brain.

Example: “He had learned to analyze his feelings away, but underneath was a hollow ache—rationalist alienation, the cost of treating oneself as a logic engine.”

Rationalist Violence by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 16, 2026

Rationalist Bigotry

Prejudice and discrimination that elevates a particular conception of rationality—often formal logic, empirical evidence, and dispassionate analysis—as the sole legitimate mode of thought, while dismissing emotional, intuitive, or relational ways of knowing as inferior or pathological. Rationalist bigotry attacks not just ideas but the people who hold them, accusing them of irrationality, emotional weakness, or mental deficiency. It often overlaps with atheist bigotry and scientific ableism, using the language of reason to justify exclusion and humiliation.

Example: “He told her that her ethical intuition was ‘just emotion’ and that only utilitarian calculation was rational—rationalist bigotry, using one model of reason to delegitimize another.”

Rationalist Prejudice

The cognitive bias that automatically privileges formal logic and empirical evidence over all other forms of reasoning, while dismissing intuition, tradition, or lived experience as inherently unreliable. It operates as a default assumption: “if it’s not rational (by my definition), it’s not worth considering.” Rationalist prejudice leads to the systematic exclusion of feminist epistemology, indigenous knowledge, and even common‑sense practical reasoning from academic and public discourse.

Example: “She proposed a community‑based solution based on local experience; he dismissed it as ‘anecdotal’ and demanded an RCT—rationalist prejudice, refusing to recognize other valid forms of evidence.”

Rationalist Bigotry by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal April 16, 2026

Rationalist Fanaticism

The fanatical wing of the rationalist community (LessWrong, effective altruism, etc.), characterized by extreme confidence in their own cognitive methods, aggressive evangelism, and strict purity tests. Rationalist fanatics treat Bayes’ theorem, decision theory, and futurist forecasts as sacred texts. They excommunicate members who question core beliefs (e.g., AI risk, longtermism) and attack outsiders who don’t adopt their jargon. Their fanaticism often manifests in cult‑like dynamics: epistemic arrogance, insularity, and a conviction that they are saving the world from irrational destruction.

Example: “When she asked about the ethics of their charity allocation, he said her reasoning wasn’t ‘properly Bayesian’ and banned her—rationalist fanaticism, mistaking a tool for orthodoxy.”

Rationalist Fanaticism by Abzugal May 2, 2026

Post-Abrahamic Rationalist (P.A.R.)

Someone who has moved beyond the belief systems of the Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—and now bases their worldview on reason, evidence, and critical thinking.

Whether they were raised outside the Abrahamic faiths or chose to move beyond them, a Post-Abrahamic Rationalist (P.A.R.) approaches questions of religion and existence through reason, evidence, and critical thought.

Post-Abrahamic Rationalist (P.A.R.) by Fritoo September 23, 2026

female rationalization hamster

Rationalization Hamster - It is a creature that inhabits the female brain and helps them spin out rationalizations when they get into a predicament. When faced with a a dilemma, the female brain that houses the rationalization hamster, causes the hamster to start working by jumping on its wheel and running really hard. In the process it spins out a rationalization – an excuse, that absolves the woman of the blame and predicates it upon farcical self- justification.

Female - I know it is not his baby, but if I don't tell him that, it's not actually a lie. After all, I won't be hurting his feelings.

Guy - Wow! So you believe it's not a lie when you make him falsely believe that the child is his, and hide the fact that you lied to and cheated on him?

Female - It just happened like that. I was heavily drunk and was not thinking clearly. So it's not my fault, you see.

Guy - Damn, that female rationalization hamster must be working overtime!

female rationalization hamster by DDwd5 February 23, 2014