being a reader should be that you’re going to coming to across something you may disagree with.
are you intently capable of not letting it offend you, and you just move forward with your life—maybe let it trickle in your mind and challenge your thoughts?
this is where people go so wrong. they accept life at face value and never learn that you can poke and push at life. so what someone said something that’s different from your world view?
I think this is what's inherently wrong with identity politics, if I'm being completely honest. When people tie their beliefs to their identity, it makes it impossible to change their minds or update their mental models bc doing so would mean there's something wrong with them as a person. The smartest people I know all change their minds when presented with new evidence—they also have no problem admitting they were wrong about something they previously believed. Those are the people I try to follow and engage with most, because it helps light the way for the type of person *I want to be* in the world. Digging my heels in even when I know I'm wrong sounds so brutally painful. I wish people could experience how liberating it feels to simply change your position and move on with your life.
I am literally having a similar discussion with Claude on this right now. How I want to write what I want to write, to share my viewpoint and ideas, hopefully get feedback, and open discussions. Because everything has gotten so flattened and stale. People repress deep discussions because they make them "uncomfortable"; forgetting that being mentally or morally uncomfortable is how you grow. If it makes you uncomfortable in that way it means it doesn't align with the core "you".
The idea that we can come on the internet, read words from strangers, and just bash them or yell them out of the arena has crippled true discussion and innovation. When the only thing that is heard is the loudest, most dissonant voices (of either end), then all you get is the supreme polarization we are seeing. It's toxic and harmful. It's past time to stop suppressing genuine thought pieces and learn how to debate again.
It's the only way we will learn from the past and each other in order to move forward.
(Also, Substack needs a celebrate option as a reaction 🤣).
I hope you write what you want to write, Kara! There are too many people writing the "safe" stuff and the pre-approved dialogue. I talk about this often and I try my best to put it all out there and say the quiet parts out loud, but even I sometimes still find myself self-censoring out of fear of backlash. It's something I put active effort into every single day. I appreciate this thoughtful comment—it's voices like this that give me that boost to keep going when I feel like shutting down. So, thank you 🎉
I think this is exactly the kind of natural experiment we need to settle this “debate”. The scientific question has been answered but sometimes you need a shocking event like a child measles outbreak or visuals of kids in iron lungs to snap NPCs out of their scripted partisan fantasies I am sure the politicians in Florida are just doing what politicians do and responding to their constituents whose minds have been poisoned by anti-vax nonsense. It’s sad and pathetic that it has to happen this way and some people will die. For similar reasons I hope Mandani wins in NYC so that we can finally put that idiocy to bed as well.
Communism is idiocy. If he wins capital will flee. If he enacts any luxury belief policy the people who he intends to help will suffer. The same thing happened in SF, when they elected those ultra progressive imbeciles post George Floyd. It took a spike in antisocial behavior and a literal coat of human shit on the streets before people started to wake up and realize that they had been duped.
Well done for writing this and saying exactly what you think. Isn’t that what it is all about Freedom of opinion, to create discussion and generate new ways of thinking. We are not always right but if we voice and discuss then our thinking can develop and refine. That’s when it gets interesting.
Your post wasn't about a choice of values. It was about the value of information and a chance to test whether what many "think is true" is really true.
Obviously there are some risks involved, but there are risks in assuming that one knows everything also. I expect that for anyone who will be honest about the facts, no matter which side they are on, that there will be surprising and useful information.
Good points. When I attempted to bring nuance into the discussion of requiring Covid vaccines of all firemen police, nurses and Washington State Patrol when it meant we were losing hundreds, and finally thousands of employees that keep our safety net together, I was also savaged, blocked and unfriended on every platform. I think the assumption is that if you open the door even a crack to the idea of moderating vaccine policies that it will escalate immediately into justification for anti-VAXxers winning the legal battle. The price of them winning and making vaccines completely optional in our public sphere would be millions of people dead and crippled over time between the scurges of polio, measles, flu, and all the rest not to mention Covid or the next pandemic —so the stakes are high.
The stakes are indeed very high. I only hope we can take the data and iterate accordingly, rather than digging our ideological heels in. There is a silver lining to the stakes being so high though, imo, which is: the faster things break, the more urgent it becomes to correct course.
The only way we learn? By reading opposing POVs. That's why I've subscribed to Stephanie's substack.
Hopefully we're not opposed ALL the time :)
being a reader should be that you’re going to coming to across something you may disagree with.
are you intently capable of not letting it offend you, and you just move forward with your life—maybe let it trickle in your mind and challenge your thoughts?
this is where people go so wrong. they accept life at face value and never learn that you can poke and push at life. so what someone said something that’s different from your world view?
I think this is what's inherently wrong with identity politics, if I'm being completely honest. When people tie their beliefs to their identity, it makes it impossible to change their minds or update their mental models bc doing so would mean there's something wrong with them as a person. The smartest people I know all change their minds when presented with new evidence—they also have no problem admitting they were wrong about something they previously believed. Those are the people I try to follow and engage with most, because it helps light the way for the type of person *I want to be* in the world. Digging my heels in even when I know I'm wrong sounds so brutally painful. I wish people could experience how liberating it feels to simply change your position and move on with your life.
We’re still here.
💪
I am literally having a similar discussion with Claude on this right now. How I want to write what I want to write, to share my viewpoint and ideas, hopefully get feedback, and open discussions. Because everything has gotten so flattened and stale. People repress deep discussions because they make them "uncomfortable"; forgetting that being mentally or morally uncomfortable is how you grow. If it makes you uncomfortable in that way it means it doesn't align with the core "you".
The idea that we can come on the internet, read words from strangers, and just bash them or yell them out of the arena has crippled true discussion and innovation. When the only thing that is heard is the loudest, most dissonant voices (of either end), then all you get is the supreme polarization we are seeing. It's toxic and harmful. It's past time to stop suppressing genuine thought pieces and learn how to debate again.
It's the only way we will learn from the past and each other in order to move forward.
(Also, Substack needs a celebrate option as a reaction 🤣).
I hope you write what you want to write, Kara! There are too many people writing the "safe" stuff and the pre-approved dialogue. I talk about this often and I try my best to put it all out there and say the quiet parts out loud, but even I sometimes still find myself self-censoring out of fear of backlash. It's something I put active effort into every single day. I appreciate this thoughtful comment—it's voices like this that give me that boost to keep going when I feel like shutting down. So, thank you 🎉
Bravo!
ty ty ty, Meg 🤍
I think this is exactly the kind of natural experiment we need to settle this “debate”. The scientific question has been answered but sometimes you need a shocking event like a child measles outbreak or visuals of kids in iron lungs to snap NPCs out of their scripted partisan fantasies I am sure the politicians in Florida are just doing what politicians do and responding to their constituents whose minds have been poisoned by anti-vax nonsense. It’s sad and pathetic that it has to happen this way and some people will die. For similar reasons I hope Mandani wins in NYC so that we can finally put that idiocy to bed as well.
What idiocy are you referring to in NYC? Genuinely asking—I like to know how other people think and I personally think Mandani is a terrible idea.
Communism is idiocy. If he wins capital will flee. If he enacts any luxury belief policy the people who he intends to help will suffer. The same thing happened in SF, when they elected those ultra progressive imbeciles post George Floyd. It took a spike in antisocial behavior and a literal coat of human shit on the streets before people started to wake up and realize that they had been duped.
Ooooh I see what you're saying, ty for clarifying. Can't say I disagree lol
Well done for writing this and saying exactly what you think. Isn’t that what it is all about Freedom of opinion, to create discussion and generate new ways of thinking. We are not always right but if we voice and discuss then our thinking can develop and refine. That’s when it gets interesting.
I absolutely agree Stepf.
Your post wasn't about a choice of values. It was about the value of information and a chance to test whether what many "think is true" is really true.
Obviously there are some risks involved, but there are risks in assuming that one knows everything also. I expect that for anyone who will be honest about the facts, no matter which side they are on, that there will be surprising and useful information.
Good points. When I attempted to bring nuance into the discussion of requiring Covid vaccines of all firemen police, nurses and Washington State Patrol when it meant we were losing hundreds, and finally thousands of employees that keep our safety net together, I was also savaged, blocked and unfriended on every platform. I think the assumption is that if you open the door even a crack to the idea of moderating vaccine policies that it will escalate immediately into justification for anti-VAXxers winning the legal battle. The price of them winning and making vaccines completely optional in our public sphere would be millions of people dead and crippled over time between the scurges of polio, measles, flu, and all the rest not to mention Covid or the next pandemic —so the stakes are high.
The stakes are indeed very high. I only hope we can take the data and iterate accordingly, rather than digging our ideological heels in. There is a silver lining to the stakes being so high though, imo, which is: the faster things break, the more urgent it becomes to correct course.