PoopMobile9000

PoopMobile9000 t1_jdhu8ul wrote

Also because cities instituted America’s first zoning ordinances for the purpose of segregating Chinese to particular neighborhoods. Also the Chinese immigrant population was mostly male because the US made immigration rules to prevent Chinese women from arriving.

85

PoopMobile9000 t1_iu5u8b8 wrote

3

PoopMobile9000 t1_iu57ynq wrote

It’s always so wild to be reminded how many people bridged the pre-modern and modern era. 1880 and 1920 seem like entire universes apart, far more than 1980 and 2020.

Like it seems perfectly reasonable to imagine someone seeing Star Wars in the theater and also using Twitter. But the idea of riding a train to the Wild West, and later taking a commercial airline flight?

114

PoopMobile9000 t1_itpxpo5 wrote

That’s different. The concept I mentioned is “social proof” and about individuals instinctively copying the behavior of others. Chesterton’s fence is about not disrupting rules or systems without understanding where the rules came from.

(Ie, I learned about social proof in intro psych, and Chersterton’s fence in law school.)

3

PoopMobile9000 t1_itoldrr wrote

Yep. If our old hunter-gatherer ancestor is in unfamiliar territory, and sees that everyone seems to be going a long, inconvenient route that avoids a certain cave entrance, I’m probably better off avoiding it too even if it doesn’t make sense to me.

Usually the common sense, conventional wisdom is correct. But when it misfires, it’s easy for the misfire to perpetuate itself indefinitely.

22