K.V. rule emerges from Announcing the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines

Posted Oct 26, 2018 14:40 UTC (Fri) by anselm (subscriber, #2796)
In reply to: K.V. rule emerges from Announcing the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines by mathstuf
Parent article: Announcing the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines

I don't think “your own reason and your own common sense” in this case is supposed to mean “your own gut feeling” or “your own convenience”. Obviously the Buddha exhorts us to use critical thinking instead of blindly believing whatever some guru or pundit tells us. That is not a bad idea.

The problem comes in where, as in global warming, there is pretty clear evidence for something that – for whatever reason – people don't want to believe, or, in the case of statistics, where people's gut feelings tend to run counter to what the actual data tells somebody with appropriate training in the field (e.g., the ongoing hype about the menace of Islamic terrorism vs. statistically – in terms of annual per-capita fatalities – much more dangerous activities such as eating too much and/or the wrong things, participating in road traffic, or for that matter taking a bath).