3 ms·

It's a very strange time, when anyone can reach anyone else (or any knowledge) instantly, but many use this as an opportunity to isolate themselves even further

It's a very strange time, when anyone can reach anyone else (or any knowledge) instantly, but many use this as an opportunity to isolate themselves even further. It seems to happen a lot when the exceptionalism common to young white men runs straight into the reality that they are in fact unexceptional and what power they have is not just unearned but waning. The cognitive dissonance that results is, as we see over and over, lethal to themselves and others.

dropit_sphere 11y ago
> what power they have is not just unearned but waning That's the interesting thing, though, isn't it? Leaving aside questions of "earned," is their power waning? Does it console Veronika Weiss or Katherine Cooper that we might have a woman as POTUS? I know no one is crusading for it but I will: when will we see equality in mass shootings? To put it in less obviously straw-man terms: why should women have to live in fear when men don't? My point is: the exceptionalism is apparently justified, because when it couldn't be, they went out and justified it. Got any breathless expose's about your troubled writings?
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  why should women have to live in fear when men don't? They don't?
  - dropit_sphere 11y ago
    It was definitely a straw man. I'm a dude and I don't live in fear of a shooter, and I don't get the impression many women do either. My point is: We're quick to claim victory as society grows more tolerant and race/sex matter less, but I think we claim it too soon. That young white men feel entitled to shoot people when their lives don't work out (and apparently others don't) is as real an imbalance as wage gaps, etc.
    - minority-one 11y ago
      > That young white men feel entitled to shoot people when their lives don't work out (and apparently others don't) If I said that Jews feel entitled to slander people and call them racist when their arguments about the existence of gas chambers don't work out, I would be ding ding ding'ed by dang. While both assertions are crassly correct, we must ask ourselves (dropit_sphere, pay attention now): - Please tone down your claims. Are you sure it is a characteristic inherent of young white men that they feel like shooting people when their lives don't work out? Or perhaps do you think it could be the characteristic not of such a large group with so many counter-examples to your thesis, but of a much narrower group, such as, for instance, non-home-schooled pubescent students under prescription drugs and probably victims of bullying, who aren't emotionally connected enough with their parents in order to talk through their feelings? When you generalize it to "young white men" you indict a whole category of people when really you should be chastising only the exceptional, criminal outliers. - Please substantiate your claims more. How did you come to the conclusion that young white men feel entitled to shoot people when their lives don't work out, while others apparently do not? Is there a study corroborating this? Can we make this claim from the sample size we have? Have there been other cases where people mistakenly blamed a whole group for the actions of the outliers? (Hint: Jews). If so, what can we learn from it? dang: please moderate this thread more closely in order to curtail the behavior exemplified by dropit_sphere's post. Thank you.
      - devindotcom 11y ago
        Well, that escalated quickly!

dropit_sphere 11y ago

> what power they have is not just unearned but waning That's the interesting thing, though, isn't it? Leaving aside questions of "earned," is their power waning? Does it console Veronika Weiss or Katherine Cooper that we might have a woman as POTUS? I know no one is crusading for it but I will: when will we see equality in mass shootings? To put it in less obviously straw-man terms: why should women have to live in fear when men don't? My point is: the exceptionalism is apparently justified, because when it couldn't be, they went out and justified it. Got any breathless expose's about your troubled writings?

vezzy-fnord 11y ago
why should women have to live in fear when men don't? They don't?
- dropit_sphere 11y ago
  It was definitely a straw man. I'm a dude and I don't live in fear of a shooter, and I don't get the impression many women do either. My point is: We're quick to claim victory as society grows more tolerant and race/sex matter less, but I think we claim it too soon. That young white men feel entitled to shoot people when their lives don't work out (and apparently others don't) is as real an imbalance as wage gaps, etc.
  - minority-one 11y ago
    > That young white men feel entitled to shoot people when their lives don't work out (and apparently others don't) If I said that Jews feel entitled to slander people and call them racist when their arguments about the existence of gas chambers don't work out, I would be ding ding ding'ed by dang. While both assertions are crassly correct, we must ask ourselves (dropit_sphere, pay attention now): - Please tone down your claims. Are you sure it is a characteristic inherent of young white men that they feel like shooting people when their lives don't work out? Or perhaps do you think it could be the characteristic not of such a large group with so many counter-examples to your thesis, but of a much narrower group, such as, for instance, non-home-schooled pubescent students under prescription drugs and probably victims of bullying, who aren't emotionally connected enough with their parents in order to talk through their feelings? When you generalize it to "young white men" you indict a whole category of people when really you should be chastising only the exceptional, criminal outliers. - Please substantiate your claims more. How did you come to the conclusion that young white men feel entitled to shoot people when their lives don't work out, while others apparently do not? Is there a study corroborating this? Can we make this claim from the sample size we have? Have there been other cases where people mistakenly blamed a whole group for the actions of the outliers? (Hint: Jews). If so, what can we learn from it? dang: please moderate this thread more closely in order to curtail the behavior exemplified by dropit_sphere's post. Thank you.
    - devindotcom 11y ago
      Well, that escalated quickly!