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> This could only have been naively said 12 years ago. To me, this is cowardice. Exactly. This is 100% cowardice. It's the mentally of a broken man who's too

by tharne 4y ago

> This could only have been naively said 12 years ago. To me, this is cowardice. Exactly. This is 100% cowardice. It's the mentally of a broken man who's too beaten to fight anymore. Very depressing.

Dawnyhf2 4y ago
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brookst 4y ago
I don’t know if it’s a trend I’ve just noticed over the past 20 years, or a fundamental part of human psychology I was oblivious to when young, but I am really disturbed by those who think everyone is secretly just like them, and anyone who fails to act identically is “broken” or “mentally ill” or only “pretending” to be different.
- skibidibipiti 4y ago
  Humans seek connection, we want to see ourselves in everyone else
- tharne 4y ago
  That's fair. Perhaps I should have chosen my words more carefully. What I was trying to say is that I've noticed that when dealing with very large and complex problems like privacy, climate change, terrorism, etc., people who claim, "I don't care about X, or I don't worry about Y anymore...", are often motivated first and foremost by fear. The problems get to feel so overwhelming that it becomes easier to either pretend the problem doesn't exist or convince yourself that you don't care. To your broader point, you are correct. We do, and I'm guilty of it here, tend to use the specter of mental illness to silence or discredit people we disagree with.
jefftk 4y ago
I fight on many things, but a huge part of fighting effectively is choosing your battles: putting your effort where it is likely to have results. Some things I've done that I think have a much better cost benefit trade off than fighting for increased privacy: * Switching careers to work on pandemic mitigation: https://www.jefftk.com/p/leaving-google-joining-the-nucleic-acid-observatory https://www.jefftk.com/p/leaving-google-joining-the-nucleic-... * Donating half my income for the last 10 years: https://www.jefftk.com/donations https://www.jefftk.com/donations * Advocating for cheaper housing: https://www.jefftk.com/news/housing https://www.jefftk.com/news/housing

by tharne 4y ago

> This could only have been naively said 12 years ago. To me, this is cowardice. Exactly. This is 100% cowardice. It's the mentally of a broken man who's too beaten to fight anymore. Very depressing.

Dawnyhf2 4y ago

[dead]

brookst 4y ago

I don’t know if it’s a trend I’ve just noticed over the past 20 years, or a fundamental part of human psychology I was oblivious to when young, but I am really disturbed by those who think everyone is secretly just like them, and anyone who fails to act identically is “broken” or “mentally ill” or only “pretending” to be different.

skibidibipiti 4y ago
Humans seek connection, we want to see ourselves in everyone else
tharne 4y ago
That's fair. Perhaps I should have chosen my words more carefully. What I was trying to say is that I've noticed that when dealing with very large and complex problems like privacy, climate change, terrorism, etc., people who claim, "I don't care about X, or I don't worry about Y anymore...", are often motivated first and foremost by fear. The problems get to feel so overwhelming that it becomes easier to either pretend the problem doesn't exist or convince yourself that you don't care. To your broader point, you are correct. We do, and I'm guilty of it here, tend to use the specter of mental illness to silence or discredit people we disagree with.

jefftk 4y ago

I fight on many things, but a huge part of fighting effectively is choosing your battles: putting your effort where it is likely to have results. Some things I've done that I think have a much better cost benefit trade off than fighting for increased privacy: * Switching careers to work on pandemic mitigation: https://www.jefftk.com/p/leaving-google-joining-the-nucleic-acid-observatory https://www.jefftk.com/p/leaving-google-joining-the-nucleic-... * Donating half my income for the last 10 years: https://www.jefftk.com/donations https://www.jefftk.com/donations * Advocating for cheaper housing: https://www.jefftk.com/news/housing https://www.jefftk.com/news/housing