And what really, truly disturbs me is that these conversations are paralyzing to progress. You're responding to someone who says "hey, remember that guy? he seemed to get some shit done, maybe we should learn some lessons" and saying "nah, he was bad" which throws the baby out with the bathwater. - ThreadSky

techconnectify.bsky.social • 111 days ago

And what really, truly disturbs me is that these conversations are paralyzing to progress.

You're responding to someone who says "hey, remember that guy? he seemed to get some shit done, maybe we should learn some lessons" and saying "nah, he was bad" which throws the baby out with the bathwater.

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matrix07012.bsky.social•111 days ago

Most people are low decouplers, so getting paralyzed is unavoidable
https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/8fnch2/high_decouplers_and_low_decouplers/

wantonviolins.bsky.social•111 days ago

I find the high- and low-decoupling split as explanation of worldview deviance highly suspect. Conceptually it’s more like MBTI personality type pseudoscience than a useful framework for fostering understanding. “High decouplers” should be capable of the intellectual rigor needed to judge context!

wantonviolins.bsky.social•111 days ago

Further, it fails to account for things like systems thinking, which would be a “zero decoupling” skill that throws the entire concept into question.

wantonviolins.bsky.social•111 days ago

And another thing! High decoupling would be a severe disadvantage in any field that needs to be applied to a fully-coupled world, since we live in one. Reducing every idea to a spherical cow gently rolling across a frictionless plane has little practical utility outside of illustration.

wantonviolins.bsky.social•111 days ago

The whole notion of decoupling is the rationalist version of an inwardly angsty teenager who’s outwardly too cool to be bothered by anything, which is what rationalists were before they realized they looked ridiculous and had to invent adult-sounding explanations for their antisocial behavior.

techconnectify.bsky.social•111 days ago

this is interesting, thank you for sharing it

kingkilburn.bsky.social•111 days ago

@hankgreen.bsky.social needs to see this. I feel like he could turn this into an idea people can digest.

techconnectify.bsky.social•111 days ago

You are creating a wedge between allies when they've given you no reason to do that!

You're playing a "don't forget about..." card only because you don't feel safe assuming they haven't forgotten. And I feel for that - white guys fuck shit up constantly.

Just don't overdo it.

streamcrush.bsky.social•111 days ago

I've always felt this video has aged way too well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqevO_zrxsA

stormrider.tv•111 days ago

Wedging between allies seems to be the only thing the left is good at lately. We've seen it in the last three elections.

The right largely doesn't have this issue, that's why they won.

We have got to stop eating our own.

royx.bsky.social•111 days ago

they eat each other all the time these days

stormrider.tv•111 days ago

Citing two of the dumbest motherfuckers in the Trumpist clown car is not a good example.

Their rank and file does not have the unity problems that the left seem to have *constantly* about *every* issue of import.

royx.bsky.social•111 days ago

a lot of the time it's allies trying to out-ally each other with their knowledge of why so-and-so is problematic

royx.bsky.social•111 days ago

anything you don't hedge in your 300 characters is as good as an explicit endorsement, duh

royx.bsky.social•111 days ago

I am not immune to doing this myself to people who I think are annoying

sintra4.bsky.social•111 days ago

I'm not interested in discussions of whether someone is "problematic" in the ways I think you're describing. For instance, I don't think that LBJ's personal racism undoes what he championed and accomplished as a politician. If he had committed direct harm, though, that'd be very different.

royx.bsky.social•111 days ago

every president has committed direct harm. it comes with the job

royx.bsky.social•111 days ago

did you know that LBJ's senatorial election was won on fraud?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson#U.S._Senate_(1949%E2%80%931961)

royx.bsky.social•111 days ago

seems like direct harm to me

sintra4.bsky.social•111 days ago

That's just not what I'm saying, and I stand behind what I said. I'm in a position where trusting peoples' inherent goodness is akin to gambling. My life and my family are not a "nuance" to a discussion about politics to me. They're the reason I engage in the first place.

techconnectify.bsky.social•111 days ago

I want you to know I sympathize - I really do. I've cut people out of my life because I know I can no longer extend them grace.

I just really, really feel as though this is not warranted in every single discussion, and especially not on a platform with character limits.

techconnectify.bsky.social•111 days ago

And I mean this sincerely: nowhere in any of these posts do I say or imply "I love every single thing FDR did"

I can understand that you feel as though you need to make sure I'm not saying that - what I'm cautioning against right now is the knock-on effects of knee-jerk "but don't forget" responses

kingkilburn.bsky.social•111 days ago

Why can't we be here talking about how FDR bullied the south into running water, electricity, phones, and jobs as a model for getting America back where it should be? Obviously don't create and maintain apartheid!

sintra4.bsky.social•111 days ago

My response was not "knee-jerk," and hopefully I'll prove it by explaining it in better terms. My goal was not to lambast you over you bringing up some of FDR's actions positively, as if doing so denies what he did wrong. My point was that you shouldn't take people who assume that as viewing you...

sintra4.bsky.social•111 days ago

...as the source of their trauma. It feels like what they're saying doesn't fit and isn't really about you, because it's not. The only thing you're "guilty" of was using one of their trigger words, which you had no idea you were doing. My goal was to try and communicate this to you by centering...

sintra4.bsky.social•111 days ago

...my statements around the sincerity of their trauma. I'm hoping I've learned something valuable about how best to communicate these ideas, but I'll only know with a fresh conversation. I hope you can find some value in what I've said here. To be clear, I talk to people exactly like the ones...

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