4 ms·
I am much more likely to pay attention to someone who makes at least a token effort to communicate his beliefs to human beings (including ones with very differe
by mwfunk 9y ago
I am much more likely to pay attention to someone who makes at least a token effort to communicate his beliefs to human beings (including ones with very different backgrounds or values), yes. Of course. When people don't do this, it doesn't just make it harder to find common ground with them- it's evidence that they themselves are not credible or motivated by reason. The more outside the norm their message is, the more of a burden they have to figure out how to communicate that message to people who might not have the context to understand it. If they don't even make a token effort to do this, they're narcissists, not deep thinkers. Nutty people writing manifestos and going out of their way to drive away everyone who isn't 100.0% in agreement with them are a dime a dozen and generally don't make positive contributions to the world (which is fine by them, because their motivation is to write manifestos and call people out, not to make a positive difference in the world). If you truly care about this stuff, trying to prop up RMS as a spokesperson for these views is counterproductive. If you care about this stuff, you should be focused on getting better messages out there, and not even remotely concerned with trying to rationalize RMS. If anything, you should be among his harshest critics. People don't hate on RMS because they're opposed to everything he stands for, they hate on RMS because they really truly care about this stuff and he trivializes it.
- zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 9y agoYou know, I agree with you that RMS might not be the most effective communicator and that maybe he should present his arguments differently in order to reach people more effectively. What I completely don't understand is how people seem to derive from that that he owes them a certain style of communication before they agree with the content of his arguments, even though they seem to somehow understand the problem, and that the problem affects them just as much as him. No matter how much of a nutjob or asshole or whatever else someone appears to be (or possibly is), that's not a reasonable reason for rejecting their argument once you have understood it, against all odds, especially so when they are arguing for something that is in your interest.
- millstone 9y agoWell, people love the nutjobs, and want to love the assholes. Is the style of communication really RMS's problem? I think the problem is the content itself, not its delivery. RMS seems unable to separate the good arguments from the stupid ones. For example, don't have kids because of overpopulation (good argument), and also don't have kids because parents have to do whatever someone with money tells them to do instead of what's right (breathtakingly stupid argument). The life RMS has chosen to live is inspiring on some level, but has also warped his perspective, and therefore his arguments often miss the mark.