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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   30438 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022

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Reading this anecdote was a little confusing to me. That is, your confusion is confusing to me. Of course this is what happens when you act that way. I could have predicted that.

But I do realize, that I can't explain exactly why. I could give a thought-terminating cliche like "virtue signaling" or something, but I don't think it would actually explain anything. I don't think there's a grand psychological theory that can bring you peace.

I think even the closest friends I have behave this way, to a certain approximation. No, none of my friends care about gay people. But, if I shit talked their favorite anime, they'd defend it. To a different group of friends, if I shit talked McDonald's, I'd be banned from the groupchat for months before being invited back in like nothing happened.

Did anything bad happen with your friends because of this? Did you get excommunicated? You apologized, but maybe you were taking it too seriously? Friends have gentle friction all the time, and even you admitted the dogpile was gentle. I agree that cancel culture is real, and out there it can be brutal, but were your friends really being brutal, just because they were talking about the gays?

He didn't shit talk anyone though, he was just trying to temper the high emotions with rational data. The pushback against data in favor of emotions, claiming it's better for people to live their lives based on their own flawed perception, as pushed through the media and popular consensus, is what's scary to me, here. These people should have been comforted by the fact that they're safer than they thought, not upset by it.

temper the high emotions with rational data

Well this is sort of the point. In what seems like a friendly sort of space, not some terminally online debate forum, it's not really good manners to respond to 'high emotions' with a lecture about probabilities and car crashes. He was right to make the point, but made it in the wrong way.

if I shit talked McDonald's, I'd be banned from the groupchat for months

I had no identity idea McDonald's had such intense brand loyalty.

I had no identity

This is not a coincidence...

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