4 ms·

No. I don't understand why this social predators thing is even a hypothesis; it seems totally unfounded to me. This essay starts from a what-if and then bounds

No. I don't understand why this social predators thing is even a hypothesis; it seems totally unfounded to me. This essay starts from a what-if and then bounds forward with great leaps of logic...

randomdata 4y ago
Suggesting that people are inherently boring and don't conform out of social pressure but rather the random chance of evolution?
- bilbo0s 4y ago
  Wow. This one got me thinking too. What if "boring" social groupings have proven more stable over time than "lively and outraged" social groupings? Would evolutionary pressures start shaping our social structures over the millennia? I mean, I think probably they would right?
wonderwonder 4y ago
I think social predators are very real today. That is very much what "cancel culture" is. Its people acting as bandits to those who have violated the "SACRED" whatever and they shout from the mountain tops to bring down whoever has transgressed. They even intentionally ping your employer to bring you down, attacking the very reason so many of us must lead boring lives.
- SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
  Cancel culture only really pings on right wing culture issues. There’s plenty of exciting and quirky things people can do that aren’t that, like being really into taxidermy, or having a huge predatory insect collection. Or being into a scene like goth or raves. I would even consider, idk, having a huge passion in a specific country’s literature to be quirky, like imagine someone who is hugely in love with Congolese literature.
  - wonderwonder 4y ago
    sure, but just because it focuses on a single culture issue does not mean the bandits are not real, they have just not focused on your area yet. Does the fact its focused only on right wing cultural issues make it ok? Does that make the people attacking them and attempting to get them fired any less of a "bandit" to use the articles term? There have been several articles on parents being arrested for allowing their kids to "free range". Right wing focuses on drag shows. Its all over the place. Bandits are everywhere.
    - bilbo0s 4y ago
      I think where you're going off the rails is with the idea of "social predators" at all. I mean, there are no bandits. A right wing racist is just a part of society, with the freedom and the right to express his/her opinion and associate with those whom s/he pleases. Where is the "banditry" in that? The person opposed to the right wing racist is just a part of society, with the freedom and the right to express his/her opinion and associate with those whom s/he pleases. Where is the "banditry" in that? Maybe it would be helpful if you could outline why you believe those exercising, say, Constitutional freedoms in the US, are "bandits" or "social predators", as opposed to being just regular members of society acting in the fashion their Constitution intended?
      - ben_w 4y ago
        I think you're taking the term "bandit" too literally; I'm reading it as a metaphor, just like the use of the word "piracy" for "copyright infringement" — even though there are going to be some people who will look for the loud and open, and decide to literally rob them, I see the issues discussed in the post as being nothing to do with that dollar-money kind of thing, and all to with the loss of social capital. And now I write that, I realise that what is here called "bandit" used to be called "troll" back in the late 90s. And before the internet, "antisocial youths loitering in malls". Also, https://xkcd.com/677 https://xkcd.com/677 comes to mind.
  - ben_w 4y ago
    The quotation "cancel culture" may be associated with a particular tribe, just as the words "liberal", "conservative" are, but in all such cases the idea expressed is broader. Just as the Republican party is big on personal liberty and the Democrat party is (I think?) trying to conserve the environment, today there are some people trying to "cancel" anyone who is pro-trans and others trying to cancel anyone who is anti-trans. I see stuff like this pop up in all sorts of surprising contexts, including someone who was convinced that "epileptics are all faking it", a parter's mother who thought I had to be lying when I said I was vegetarian, and some weirdo who began campaigning against all apps made in the Xojo programming language because he didn't like the company's decision to change the design of its IDE's user interface.
bilbo0s 4y ago
Hmm. Probably true. The more I think on it, the more I see a society as a society. There is no such thing as a social predator. Everyone is part of a society. If women choose to boycott a company's products because they are upset at that company's lax attitude towards women's safety or whatever, that doesn't make half of society social predators. Women are a part of society, they're entitled to opinions, as well as the agency to engage in freedom of lawful action. The company doesn't seem a predator to me either, as all they are doing is taking lawful action to protect their revenue. There really are no social predators here, unless I've misunderstood the term.
- randomdata 4y ago
  Isn't that saying the same thing using different words? It is not like the "social predator" is some kind of distinct monster that only has to be slain and then all is right with the world. It is fundamentally just people being people and the observation therefore. Even if in some hypothetical way the "social predator" was something that was to be attacked, that would merely make the attacker a "social predator" too, rendering the whole notion an impossibility.
  - watwut 4y ago
    The difference is in judgement in words. When you say "social predator", the implication is that the person is doing something wrong and are bad in some way.

No. I don't understand why this social predators thing is even a hypothesis; it seems totally unfounded to me. This essay starts from a what-if and then bounds forward with great leaps of logic...

randomdata 4y ago

Suggesting that people are inherently boring and don't conform out of social pressure but rather the random chance of evolution?

bilbo0s 4y ago
Wow. This one got me thinking too. What if "boring" social groupings have proven more stable over time than "lively and outraged" social groupings? Would evolutionary pressures start shaping our social structures over the millennia? I mean, I think probably they would right?

wonderwonder 4y ago

I think social predators are very real today. That is very much what "cancel culture" is. Its people acting as bandits to those who have violated the "SACRED" whatever and they shout from the mountain tops to bring down whoever has transgressed. They even intentionally ping your employer to bring you down, attacking the very reason so many of us must lead boring lives.

SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
Cancel culture only really pings on right wing culture issues. There’s plenty of exciting and quirky things people can do that aren’t that, like being really into taxidermy, or having a huge predatory insect collection. Or being into a scene like goth or raves. I would even consider, idk, having a huge passion in a specific country’s literature to be quirky, like imagine someone who is hugely in love with Congolese literature.
- wonderwonder 4y ago
  sure, but just because it focuses on a single culture issue does not mean the bandits are not real, they have just not focused on your area yet. Does the fact its focused only on right wing cultural issues make it ok? Does that make the people attacking them and attempting to get them fired any less of a "bandit" to use the articles term? There have been several articles on parents being arrested for allowing their kids to "free range". Right wing focuses on drag shows. Its all over the place. Bandits are everywhere.
  - bilbo0s 4y ago
    I think where you're going off the rails is with the idea of "social predators" at all. I mean, there are no bandits. A right wing racist is just a part of society, with the freedom and the right to express his/her opinion and associate with those whom s/he pleases. Where is the "banditry" in that? The person opposed to the right wing racist is just a part of society, with the freedom and the right to express his/her opinion and associate with those whom s/he pleases. Where is the "banditry" in that? Maybe it would be helpful if you could outline why you believe those exercising, say, Constitutional freedoms in the US, are "bandits" or "social predators", as opposed to being just regular members of society acting in the fashion their Constitution intended?
    - ben_w 4y ago
      I think you're taking the term "bandit" too literally; I'm reading it as a metaphor, just like the use of the word "piracy" for "copyright infringement" — even though there are going to be some people who will look for the loud and open, and decide to literally rob them, I see the issues discussed in the post as being nothing to do with that dollar-money kind of thing, and all to with the loss of social capital. And now I write that, I realise that what is here called "bandit" used to be called "troll" back in the late 90s. And before the internet, "antisocial youths loitering in malls". Also, https://xkcd.com/677 https://xkcd.com/677 comes to mind.
- ben_w 4y ago
  The quotation "cancel culture" may be associated with a particular tribe, just as the words "liberal", "conservative" are, but in all such cases the idea expressed is broader. Just as the Republican party is big on personal liberty and the Democrat party is (I think?) trying to conserve the environment, today there are some people trying to "cancel" anyone who is pro-trans and others trying to cancel anyone who is anti-trans. I see stuff like this pop up in all sorts of surprising contexts, including someone who was convinced that "epileptics are all faking it", a parter's mother who thought I had to be lying when I said I was vegetarian, and some weirdo who began campaigning against all apps made in the Xojo programming language because he didn't like the company's decision to change the design of its IDE's user interface.

bilbo0s 4y ago

Hmm. Probably true. The more I think on it, the more I see a society as a society. There is no such thing as a social predator. Everyone is part of a society. If women choose to boycott a company's products because they are upset at that company's lax attitude towards women's safety or whatever, that doesn't make half of society social predators. Women are a part of society, they're entitled to opinions, as well as the agency to engage in freedom of lawful action. The company doesn't seem a predator to me either, as all they are doing is taking lawful action to protect their revenue. There really are no social predators here, unless I've misunderstood the term.

randomdata 4y ago
Isn't that saying the same thing using different words? It is not like the "social predator" is some kind of distinct monster that only has to be slain and then all is right with the world. It is fundamentally just people being people and the observation therefore. Even if in some hypothetical way the "social predator" was something that was to be attacked, that would merely make the attacker a "social predator" too, rendering the whole notion an impossibility.
- watwut 4y ago
  The difference is in judgement in words. When you say "social predator", the implication is that the person is doing something wrong and are bad in some way.