3 ms·

My brother's wife is one of these folks you talk about, with the "keeping kids out of school" and "leaving deliveries on porch for 3 days". Very well said! Wh

by JPKab 5y ago

My brother's wife is one of these folks you talk about, with the "keeping kids out of school" and "leaving deliveries on porch for 3 days". Very well said! What I'm very curious about is what makes me perceive risk so much differently than these others. I'm wondering if it's conditioning (I spent a big chunk of my life building houses, and therefore climbing on extension ladders and walking on roof trusses was a daily ritual), childhood (I was in unstable environments a lot), or just brain wiring from birth. A respondent on your comment mentioned a willingness to "outsource judgement to news sources" and even better "outsourcing judgement to political rivals and adopting the opposite viewpoint by default". This is a phenomenon that I anecdotally notice is intensified with educated elites. My brother's wife went to Cornell, never struck me as particularly creative or novel, but just has a great work ethic and follows what books tell her to do. She's a born rule follower, and follows conventional wisdom to the point where it borders on comical and often, defying common sense.

korethr 5y ago
> What I'm very curious about is what makes me perceive risk so much differently than these others. I'm wondering if it's conditioning (I spent a big chunk of my life building houses, and therefore climbing on extension ladders and walking on roof trusses was a daily ritual), childhood (I was in unstable environments a lot), or just brain wiring from birth. I'm guessing conditioning is a big part of it. I'd wager the majority or people with more hysterical reactions have lived fairly comfortable lives, without having to face much in the way of dangerous risks. And without that, they also fail to also learn that risks and dangers can be controlled and mitigated. Or that even mild preparedness can mean the difference between recoverable injury and death. So absent this personal experience of a counterpoint to the hysteria on the news, they're more likely to accept prognostications of certain horrible doom uncritically.
- whipaway 5y ago
  Yea I think back to generations past, where you'd find yourself being sent to Normandy or something or stationed on a ship that just got hit by a torpedo. Chance of death - >>1%. Now healthy people with a fraction of a percent risk of hospitalization, much less death, act like agoraphobes - apparently willing to do so indefinitely. Far removed from the experience of the world as it is, dependent on the comfort of advanced human technology, people have become debilitated by the mere idea of the challenges that their ancestors overcame and readily coped with. Courage is gone, and it's perhaps the most important virtue that allows one to get through life and face the insurmountable challenges that all of us will encounter.
  - JPKab 5y ago
    What's really interesting is how many of my comments on this topic have been downvoted to oblivion with absolutely no responses from the people doing the downvoting. I think a willingness to face temporary discomfort is something that seems to be in decline with specific members of the younger cohort of the millennial generation. This translates to journalism where you have a new generation of journalist who produces clickbait all day but never goes and interviews people in person and certainly doesn't do so over the phone. Think about how many people you know are unwilling to make phone calls and prefer text messages almost exclusively. That's not a huge deal but many of these same people are extremely uncomfortable interacting over a telephone with strangers. It's a really bad recipe for quality journalism. Any attempt to have nuanced discussions on these topics immediately makes the sectarian politicos come out in droves and assume that you are a supporter of the previous president even if you aren't. Trying to discuss the extremely plausible scenario of an accidental lab leak makes people assume you're a Trump supporter, for example. My opinion is that if he wasn't so ridiculously ignorant and unwilling to show vulnerability by engaging in topics he knows nothing about and attempting to learn, we would be in a much better place with this pandemic. Instead he didn't want to do that and simply offloaded all thinking to Fauci, but then simultaneously would attack him whenever he was speaking to certain groups.
    - whipaway 5y ago
      Yea I largely agree with all the stuff you're saying. Regarding Trump though, I think he did do himself a massive disservice giving space to people like Fauci and Bolton. Although, with a generous interpretation, he certainly seems to be able to listen and platform people he diametrically opposes, which is something I don't know can be said about his opposition.
  - CWuestefeld 5y ago
    This has been bothering me for years, long before covid-19. Avoiding risk has become such a huge part of our culture that most of our standard salutations revolve around this: "stay safe", "have a safe trip", "drive safely", and so forth. I'd much rather that people would wish me a fulfilling life in which I available myself of many rich experiences.
uxp100 5y ago
Construction is one of the most dangerous professions, but I’m not sure which direction the risk level is flowing in. Maybe working changed your risk assessment or maybe you wound up in that line of work because you already were more of a risk taker. I was helping my 60 year old dad fasten some trusses a few months ago for the first time since I was a teen and damn, I was nervous as he walked along the fastened ones to do some fiddling needed in the middle beam. I know I wasn’t nearly as quick to follow instructions when I was 15 and was doing this all the time and it felt normal.

by JPKab 5y ago

korethr 5y ago

> What I'm very curious about is what makes me perceive risk so much differently than these others. I'm wondering if it's conditioning (I spent a big chunk of my life building houses, and therefore climbing on extension ladders and walking on roof trusses was a daily ritual), childhood (I was in unstable environments a lot), or just brain wiring from birth. I'm guessing conditioning is a big part of it. I'd wager the majority or people with more hysterical reactions have lived fairly comfortable lives, without having to face much in the way of dangerous risks. And without that, they also fail to also learn that risks and dangers can be controlled and mitigated. Or that even mild preparedness can mean the difference between recoverable injury and death. So absent this personal experience of a counterpoint to the hysteria on the news, they're more likely to accept prognostications of certain horrible doom uncritically.

whipaway 5y ago
Yea I think back to generations past, where you'd find yourself being sent to Normandy or something or stationed on a ship that just got hit by a torpedo. Chance of death - >>1%. Now healthy people with a fraction of a percent risk of hospitalization, much less death, act like agoraphobes - apparently willing to do so indefinitely. Far removed from the experience of the world as it is, dependent on the comfort of advanced human technology, people have become debilitated by the mere idea of the challenges that their ancestors overcame and readily coped with. Courage is gone, and it's perhaps the most important virtue that allows one to get through life and face the insurmountable challenges that all of us will encounter.
- JPKab 5y ago
  What's really interesting is how many of my comments on this topic have been downvoted to oblivion with absolutely no responses from the people doing the downvoting. I think a willingness to face temporary discomfort is something that seems to be in decline with specific members of the younger cohort of the millennial generation. This translates to journalism where you have a new generation of journalist who produces clickbait all day but never goes and interviews people in person and certainly doesn't do so over the phone. Think about how many people you know are unwilling to make phone calls and prefer text messages almost exclusively. That's not a huge deal but many of these same people are extremely uncomfortable interacting over a telephone with strangers. It's a really bad recipe for quality journalism. Any attempt to have nuanced discussions on these topics immediately makes the sectarian politicos come out in droves and assume that you are a supporter of the previous president even if you aren't. Trying to discuss the extremely plausible scenario of an accidental lab leak makes people assume you're a Trump supporter, for example. My opinion is that if he wasn't so ridiculously ignorant and unwilling to show vulnerability by engaging in topics he knows nothing about and attempting to learn, we would be in a much better place with this pandemic. Instead he didn't want to do that and simply offloaded all thinking to Fauci, but then simultaneously would attack him whenever he was speaking to certain groups.
  - whipaway 5y ago
    Yea I largely agree with all the stuff you're saying. Regarding Trump though, I think he did do himself a massive disservice giving space to people like Fauci and Bolton. Although, with a generous interpretation, he certainly seems to be able to listen and platform people he diametrically opposes, which is something I don't know can be said about his opposition.
- CWuestefeld 5y ago
  This has been bothering me for years, long before covid-19. Avoiding risk has become such a huge part of our culture that most of our standard salutations revolve around this: "stay safe", "have a safe trip", "drive safely", and so forth. I'd much rather that people would wish me a fulfilling life in which I available myself of many rich experiences.

uxp100 5y ago

Construction is one of the most dangerous professions, but I’m not sure which direction the risk level is flowing in. Maybe working changed your risk assessment or maybe you wound up in that line of work because you already were more of a risk taker. I was helping my 60 year old dad fasten some trusses a few months ago for the first time since I was a teen and damn, I was nervous as he walked along the fastened ones to do some fiddling needed in the middle beam. I know I wasn’t nearly as quick to follow instructions when I was 15 and was doing this all the time and it felt normal.