themagicbong t1_jd013dk wrote on March 20, 2023 at 9:10 PM

Reply to comment by MrPapis in The photo that was the inspiration for Jamie Lee Curtis' character in EEAAO by woutomatic

Absolutely. Unfortunately, I did end up falling into that, a bit, and it never helps or makes you look good, thats for sure. And yeah it's kinda shocking, at times, the degree to which people will willing separate from reality to push certain narratives/to win arguments. Honestly, this type of stuff is definitely worrying. Can't even have a simple convo about an initialism without there having to be a "good" and a "bad" side. And yknow, the whole thing where its okay to not agree 100%. That doesn't have to mean the person you're speaking with is a literal child, or something like that. This new hardline attitude for everything is just not the way, imo. Sure, feel strongly about whatever you want, but that does not suddenly make your cause important, nor does it make you superior to others. Picking a side shouldn't be thought of in a way that invokes superiority. Yet nowadays everyone and their moms seemingly thinks they are better than everyone else, simply because they believe in "the correct side." Anyway, I hope some of these things can be reverted, maybe with people realizing these extreme caricatures are not representative of anyone, really. But I'm not holding my breath.

MrPapis t1_jd0uqwh wrote on March 21, 2023 at 12:37 AM

Honestly if we really poke at it it seems we are hitting the limitations of human nature against the modern world. Where people used to burn witches and ridiculing people that they couldn't understand it's so sad to see the same "looked down upon" people(atleast in their mind) continue immoral and virtue signaling instead of trying to see a truth. But that's the thing, accepting our own narrow mindedness and actively expanding it when met with true adversity/differing opinion is gonna be the strength to garner. I personally see autistic people as some sort of a development as they seem to have a much more rigid and firm understanding of truth and knows better than to delve into arguments they cannot succesfully relate to ie. Understanding the actual truth instead of a limited or broken understanding. Note I do understand this is not all autism is and there is definitely severe consequences to the condition. But I hope that part of it can be forced on what is basically a broken mind with a computer brain interface. So that instead of acting out of ignorance and human limitation, we can reach beyond and speak real truths based on data and evidence. Much like many autistic people do. But will it enforce truth or will we still ignore a truth that isn't beneficial to us? How strong will our subjective mind be against the hard structured data of which the internet comprises. I choose to believe that most people are good and what we are seeing is a vocal minority faltering. And I also believe that the way to win is by giving the other cheek. I don't look down upon you for speaking against it, i have done so myself. All I can say is that the only way to truly align with people is with acceptance and understanding. And we can only start with out selves. Giving them something to fight and group against will not make them succumb to reason. But a kind heart might.

themagicbong t1_jd1kaah wrote on March 21, 2023 at 3:58 AM

You've got a nice way of putting to words ideas that I sometimes struggle to communicate, but I definitely would have to agree that coming together is vastly superior to basically any alternative. We're at a point where you have entire nations with people living next door to one another seeing each other as enemies. It almost sounds laughable to even consider that we COULD tackle some of the crazy issues we now face, given how little unity there ever seems to be on anything.

I'm someone who had a bit of a rough go of it, early in life. I had ADD/ADHD combined (not sure what it is nowadays, but thats what I WAS diagnosed with, in the 90s.) and always struggled with school. Then struggled with addiction for a while right out of highschool. These hardships, I feel, gave me far better perspective on the human psyche. And a bit of insight into just how similar we all are to one another. I really hate the idea nowadays of just throwing the whole person away, and I definitely think positive change is possible. I'll have to try and remember to always be civil, as you mention, as it really is the only way to cut through the bullshit a lot of the time.

Your final thoughts on the matter, there, echo my own quite nicely. I think that usually if you can get far enough along with any given person, that you can find SOME kind of common ground or understanding. Most of the time. I do hope that we (the collective we, lol) can learn to put aside our differences to a much greater degree than we do today. It almost seems like we've taken a few steps back in that area, though, in the last decade or so. One thing is for sure, to me, though, and its that extreme views really don't promote much positive change, even if you personally believe your cause to be righteous.