"I think Eliezer Yudkowsky was right when he wrote “Politics is the mindkiller.”. Politics makes you polarized and emotional. It makes you see the world in terms of “us versus them”. Nothing is more motivating and unifying to a group of human animals than having a common enemy. But this is an irrational urge, rooted in millions of years of evolution and warfare, not an effective strategy against today's threats.

The important threats aren't human villains to defeat ‒ evil politicans, lawyers, or businesspeople. The important threats are faceless patterns of destruction: poverty and disease, bad economic and political structures, ignorance and superstition.

It was disease that killed Aaron.

By 2007, I perceived Aaron as having become too emotional and polarized to listen to reason. It didn't help that I disagreed with most of his political beliefs and preferred policies: “Lefty” politics, which I perceive as being a highly emotional, socially constructed belief system, like a religion.

We agreed to a book swap to bridge the gap. He gave me “Understanding Power ‒ The Essential Noam Chomsky”. I gave him “Darwin's Dangerous Idea” by Daniel Dennett. Neither of us got much from the other's offering. That damned Chomsky book is still sitting on my bedside bookshelf, but I've long since given up feeling guilty every time my gaze falls upon it. I never made it past the first couple of chapters."

http://zooko-on-aaronsw.blogspot.com/