Controversial opinion: "what I think is true" and "my opinion" are and should be different things.
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"what I think is true" is the info I'd share with someone who asked my advice if I were trying to be as helpful as possible without imposing my values on them.
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"my opinion" is a performance of a role I want to occupy in social space.
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The difference between performative and literal beliefs is the difference between character design in animation and realistic portraiture. Cartoon characters need to be vivid, distinctive, and on-theme, because they're being optimized for recognizability.
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A performative opinion *must* convey info about the speaker which locates them in relation to other speakers in the social environment. This is why well-known truths are useless as performative opinions -- they're not distinctive.
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You can't obtain personal loyalty -- people being helpful to *you per se*, helping you because it's *you* and not somebody else -- unless you're recognizable and distinctive.
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Why might one want personal loyalty over other kinds of help? Why not, say, want people to help you because it's in their best interest?
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Not sure, but probably personal loyalty matters if one expects to be in zero-sum conflicts or conflicts between groups of kin. Conflicts where there's no systematic reason why one side *should* win, except that they're close to you through personal affiliations.
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My opinion (performative, bien sur!) is that we *are* in such conflicts, quite often, and that therefore we *need* performative identities. Preaching "just drop all your badges and uniforms" is preaching unconditional surrender, which is unhelpful.
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