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Randy and Amy had spent a full hour talking to Scott and Laura last night; they were the only people who made any effort to make Amy feel welcome. Ra
by hprotagonist 5y ago
Randy and Amy had spent a full hour talking to Scott and Laura last
night; they were the only people who made any effort to make Amy feel
welcome. Randy hadn't the faintest idea what these people thought of him and
what he had done, but he could sense right away that, essentially that was
not the issue because even if they thought he had done something evil, they
at least had a framework, a sort of procedure manual, for dealing with
transgressions.
To translate it into UNIX system administration terms
(Randy's fundamental metaphor for just about everything), the post modern,
politically correct atheists were like people who had suddenly found
themselves in charge of a big and unfathomably complex computer system (viz,
society) with no documentation or instructions of any kind, and so whose
only way to keep the thing running was to invent and enforce certain rules
with a kind of neo Puritanical rigor, because they were at a loss to deal
with any deviations from what they saw as the norm. -- Cryptonomicon, 1999
Rehashing the PC wars of the mid-90s has been a continual experience of deja vu combined with a fairly appalled horror at finding out how many of my peers fell for it twice.
- duxup 5y agoI'm not even sure if it is PC wars of the mid 90s as much as a sort of flavor of puritanism like behavior where folks just substitute their cause / identity and go looking for whatever is wrong. I fear it is human nature.
- throwaway14356 5y agoits facinating to see a big problem solve little people
- at_a_remove 5y agoIt is a bit worse than that -- because these were largely people who did not fall for the religious-based Puritanism. D&D is Satanic. Now it is problematic. It appears that people will fall for this Puritanism as long as the flavor packet that comes with it is to their taste.
- vorpalhex 5y agoI once had a conversation that went like this: > Well that's problematic How is it problematic? > I don't know, it just is Can you describe it without using the word problematic? > No, it simply is problematic Do you maybe mean you simply disagree with it? > No, it's PROBLEMATIC -- I've taken to ignoring any phrase with the word problematic, unless it's followed with a meaningful description of what is the problem.
- LanceH 5y agoI feel the same way about "processed" food.
- mvc 5y agoProcessed food is "problematic". The problems are well known and documented though https://www.lhsfna.org/index.cfm/lifelines/may-2019/the-many-health-risks-of-processed-foods/ https://www.lhsfna.org/index.cfm/lifelines/may-2019/the-many...
- vorpalhex 5y agoProcessed food includes both McDonalds cheeseburgers and wholegrain bagels.
- MisterTea 5y agoIt also describes the "processed" rack of ribs I slow cooked last night after cleaning and seasoning them (processing steps).
- mvc 5y agoIs it frustrating going through life assuming a superficial understanding of words and phrases without considering how they are intended to be understood by the writer/speaker? The article I linked clearly explained that "processed" is not a binary flag, but rather a continuum. And that the harm is done by processing that adds excessive sugar, salt, and fat (and even then only when you consume that type of processed food to the exclusion of all other food).
- titzer 5y agoThe difference is that today there is an all-powerful AI that has managed to infiltrate every screen and mediate every digital interaction as a monetization opportunity with advertising. In other words, an endlessly profitable persuasion machine that dances to the tune of dollar bills and will happily push whatever narrative is most effective at widening and strengthening that conduit, i.e. maximizes engagement. It twists our preferences gradually, a little at a time, knowing full well that to risk it all with bold and obvious propaganda risks shattering the ruse and scaring you off.
- vorpalhex 5y ago> every screen Not every screen. You know how to turn it away. Help your friends and family do the same.
- q_andrew 5y agoI love Randy's blunt social commentary.