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> ignorance is bliss Sounds more like acceptance of something they are not ignorant of. > What if the same mechanisms Ok but are they? This hypothetical isn’

> ignorance is bliss Sounds more like acceptance of something they are not ignorant of. > What if the same mechanisms Ok but are they? This hypothetical isn’t useful if they aren’t, and I’m not convinced they are.

toastercat 3y ago
> Sounds more like acceptance of something they are not ignorant of. I can see it both ways, but OP basically said "I'm sure it happens to others, but it doesn't happen to me, so I don't care" which is fine, but also not helpful and is also missing the point of the article. It's like reading an article about the water crisis in Flint and saying "water quality is great here in Miami, so doesn't bother me" > Ok but are they? This hypothetical isn’t useful if they aren’t, and I’m not convinced they are. I think it is worth considering. I won't force you to consider it if you don't want to, though.
- sixstringtheory 3y ago
  You’re comparing someone not caring about others getting into Harvard to someone not caring about people getting lead poisoning from their water. Can we at least agree that not envying others’ higher status is not the same moral ground as not caring about suffering? On that note, you can’t force everyone to care about every bad thing that happens in the world. It’s not reasonable to care about each such thing because, since you can’t control or change all of them, that mindset will simply wear you down and consume all of your time and energy, yet produce no results. It’s a matter of focus. I did consider your question, but I don’t have enough information to make a determination one way or the other, and since you provided none, I dismissed the speculation out of hand.
  - toastercat 3y ago
    > You’re comparing someone not caring about others getting into Harvard to someone not caring about people getting lead poisoning from their water. No, I'm giving an example of not caring about something that does not affect you personally, yet you acknowledge it affects others. > Can we at least agree that not envying others’ higher status is not the same moral ground as not caring about suffering? This was never contended. > On that note, you can’t force everyone to care about every bad thing that happens in the world. It’s not reasonable to care about each such thing because, since you can’t control or change all of them, that mindset will simply wear you down and consume all of your time and energy, yet produce no results. It’s a matter of focus. This was never contended either. But different folks have different energy, and are fine reading the news everyday for example. Some don't read the news (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews). There is no one right way. No one's forcing anyone though. > I did consider your example, but I don’t have enough information to make a determination one way or the other, and since you provided none, I dismissed the speculation out of hand. I posed that hypothetical because OP implied they do not care about Harvard (or presumably other elite universities), but they do care about "more important" things like racism. However, elite universities like Harvard have complicated histories with institutional racism, segregated dorms, and admission scandals.

toastercat 3y ago

> Sounds more like acceptance of something they are not ignorant of. I can see it both ways, but OP basically said "I'm sure it happens to others, but it doesn't happen to me, so I don't care" which is fine, but also not helpful and is also missing the point of the article. It's like reading an article about the water crisis in Flint and saying "water quality is great here in Miami, so doesn't bother me" > Ok but are they? This hypothetical isn’t useful if they aren’t, and I’m not convinced they are. I think it is worth considering. I won't force you to consider it if you don't want to, though.

sixstringtheory 3y ago
You’re comparing someone not caring about others getting into Harvard to someone not caring about people getting lead poisoning from their water. Can we at least agree that not envying others’ higher status is not the same moral ground as not caring about suffering? On that note, you can’t force everyone to care about every bad thing that happens in the world. It’s not reasonable to care about each such thing because, since you can’t control or change all of them, that mindset will simply wear you down and consume all of your time and energy, yet produce no results. It’s a matter of focus. I did consider your question, but I don’t have enough information to make a determination one way or the other, and since you provided none, I dismissed the speculation out of hand.
- toastercat 3y ago
  > You’re comparing someone not caring about others getting into Harvard to someone not caring about people getting lead poisoning from their water. No, I'm giving an example of not caring about something that does not affect you personally, yet you acknowledge it affects others. > Can we at least agree that not envying others’ higher status is not the same moral ground as not caring about suffering? This was never contended. > On that note, you can’t force everyone to care about every bad thing that happens in the world. It’s not reasonable to care about each such thing because, since you can’t control or change all of them, that mindset will simply wear you down and consume all of your time and energy, yet produce no results. It’s a matter of focus. This was never contended either. But different folks have different energy, and are fine reading the news everyday for example. Some don't read the news (http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews). There is no one right way. No one's forcing anyone though. > I did consider your example, but I don’t have enough information to make a determination one way or the other, and since you provided none, I dismissed the speculation out of hand. I posed that hypothetical because OP implied they do not care about Harvard (or presumably other elite universities), but they do care about "more important" things like racism. However, elite universities like Harvard have complicated histories with institutional racism, segregated dorms, and admission scandals.