General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Obama: "At some point, you age out. You're not connected directly to the immediate struggles that folks are going..." [View all]jfz9580m
(16,731 posts)With moderation.
Because society is pretty right-shifted, I am apparently radical left. But I totally agree with you.
Our shitty media and a lot of the more grating activists have made it hard for people to comprehend something that humans had a more intuitive and instinctive understanding of.
Which is that when irl you assess people, you wouldnt typically primarily assess them as Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Black, White, immigrant or even male or female
the years have made me a little wary of the male sex..which is unfortunate because some 15 years ago, I had lead a sheltered enough life in different clean NIH labs and before that in school in India, where I rarely ran into creepy men so much as ordinary dull people going about their lives.
That programming is still so strong in me that with some breathing room, I revert to that retaining only enough info this time around to clampdown with any of this other type I only came across under more artificial circumstances and with plenty of kayfabe and bullshit.
Anyway, usually you assess people more, or I do anyway and that has to be a lot of people who arent actively programmed with prejudices, as: kinda sleazy, charlatan, insincere, kinda daft, disingenuous, no self awareness, a bore, talks too much (my group by now! i had to endure way too much daft shit), solipsistic or the kind of person you think one can work with without it being a huge strain.
And your point is spot on. This all or nothing view is counterintuitive. Otoh there is so much deregulation, cruelty and overreach in society, it is not possible to be insipid about it.
So finding that fine line in this accelerating stupidity is the thing.
My own lens on the world is that stupidity more than malice is often the issue. A lot of malicious people, especially our billionaires and many leaders, do come off as really stupid people. Like a bunker and buying islands etc is not elite, it is stupid.
Endlessly breaking society and trying to pull off daft Machiavellian gambits, flooding the zone etc is stupid. And by the same token, preaching and purporting to care for people while solipsistically pissing people off is stupid.
When dealing with manipulation (in daft ways sure, but it works in this crowded and chaotic hellscape) at scale, finding ways to handle situations (where tempers and patience are frayed all around to begin with), it is essential to handle it with some finesse over that woman Beverly DAngelos style..
I reason with my dad somewhat carefully and respectfully all the time..I used to spar with him, but as I have grown older I have found he is not unreasonable absent heavy-handed or quarrelsome ways. Humans are confusing and surprising. He is kinda conservative, but he can turn around and be genuinely very progressive (pro trans rights, feminist etc). He is definitely foul mouthed though..he says he is a sailor and that is a feature not a bug ;-/
This stale surprise minimization forced by our sleazy pseudo elites insistant on retaining their death grip over all resources is breaking everything.
They have made this environment of perpetual and totally disingenuous offense-taking over trivialities the norm and it is so solipsistic to fail to see by now that hectoring people isnt changing things and it is possible without in any real way diluting standards at all to, let it go with the type of message control that is not even accurate that you mention.
It is so bogus. After all if people are in a perpetual snit about something trivial, much easier for our bogus robber baron elite to rob us blind and strip mine the planet.
I have seen those groups you talk about..and then they turn around and shill Dove or some such corporate giant.
By the same token, it is not like I dont use products from those giants and build my own computer from scratch, which would be impractical, zombie like in a person like me with minimal interest in computers. I just do it ungraciously as a compromise ;-/.