[Linkpost] “It’s ‘Well, actually...’ all the way down” by benwr

Some people (the “Boubas”) don’t like “chemicals” in their food. But other people (the “Kikis”) are like, “uh, everything is chemicals, what do you even mean?”

The Boubas are using the word “chemical” differently than the Kikis, and the way they’re using it is simultaneously more specific and less precise than the way the Kikis use it. I think most Kikis implicitly know this, but their identities are typically tied up in being the kind of person who “knows what ‘chemical’ means”, and… you’ve gotta use that kind of thing whenever you can, I guess?

There is no single privileged universally-correct answer to the question “what does ‘chemical’ mean?”, because the Boubas exist and are using the word differently than Kikis, and in an internally-consistent (though vague) way.

The Kikis are, generally speaking, much more knowledgeable about the details of chemistry. They might hang out [...]

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First published:
May 6th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6qdBkd3GS4Qd6YJ3s/it-s-well-actually-all-the-way-down

Linkpost URL:
https://www.benwr.net/2025/05/05/well-actually-all-the-way-down.html

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.