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When you read this kind of text from old magazines is that you see that humanity is really getting better: "What it does. This is not easy to explain to women a
by neves 8y ago
When you read this kind of text from old magazines is that you see that humanity is really getting better: "What it does. This is not easy to explain to women and the mechanically innocent. Not that the gadget is particularly complex;"
- userbinator 8y agoYou can definitely date a nontrivial piece of writing, at least approximately, by the language it employs. I'd say humanity has gotten better in some ways, but also worse in others.
- aerovistae 8y agoCan you give an example of a way in which we’ve gotten worse?
- maratd 8y agoPeretend I said something politically incorrect and insert your outrage below this comment. Be sure to use some derogatory adjectives, unrelated to anything previously said, to describe me.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- aerovistae 8y agoI'm not convinced that's a new phenomenon. Certainly I've seen no evidence that it is and a great deal that it isn't.
- MBCook 8y agoThat may simply be an artifact of most writing we have from older periods was professional, like magazine articles. Not personal/casual, like Reddit/HN.
- aerovistae 8y agoYou don't even really need examples of casual writing to discern that this attitude is nothing new. I mean, look at stories from throughout history, from the debates of Roman senators to Salem Witch Trials and back to Chinese oracle bones-- since when have people ever avoided ad hominem attacks, fallacious logic, and overwrought outrage on topics they barely understand?
- pvillano 8y agoPeople used to have duels over arguments.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- randyrand 8y agoKeep in mind that the definition of better has not stayed the same over time.
- PhasmaFelis 8y agoWhich is part of what "getting better" means.
- foota 8y agoI think parent's point is that if we look forward 50 years even the most progressive of us might not agree that progress has been made (or think that we've regressed in some way), whereas new people will see vast progress.
- taneq 8y agoEven reading something from the 70s, it's jarring how much the language and what's considered acceptable has changed.
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoI do like the description of "mechanically innocent" though.
- jacobush 8y agoYes, but except for that the text struck me as very modern. I would not have batted an eyelid if it was written today.
- csours 8y agoMy grandmother was born in the 1920s. There was a self-enforced 'femininity' back then, wherein women told themselves that they couldn't, shouldn't, or didn't need to understand things, and that their husbands or fathers would take care of things. I'm personally very grateful we have moved past this. My grandmother would break down at the slightest hint of technical discussion. She never understood computers as anything more than a fancy typewriter.
- pentagonpapers 8y agoTrying to enforce this with my younger sibling. Computers are cool, chess is cool, working on cars is cool. Turns out little siblings tend to like what their older siblings do (great for me, I have something I can teach!)
- JasonFruit 8y agoDo you believe people in the 1840s were better than people in the 1770s? Or people in the 1950s better than the 1920s? I'm not convinced there is any consistent progress, as opposed to a simple preference for the times in which we live.