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> Its quite useful, means I can safely ignore any opinion they have on the topic at hand. Speaking of an incredibly negative and gross "virtue"—this growing tr

> Its quite useful, means I can safely ignore any opinion they have on the topic at hand. Speaking of an incredibly negative and gross "virtue"—this growing trend of people actively seeking to identify members of an out group who they can safely ignore is disturbing. Once upon a time we actually tried to understand even our opponents, if only so we could beat them in the debates. Now we're so confident that we're right, they're wrong, and right makes might that we don't feel the need to attempt to understand them even to debate them—we just throw meaningless insults at each other and win elections based on who can drum up the most fear of the "incredibly negative and gross" other.

EnigmaFlare 2y ago
The solution of course is to come up with a new word for "virtue signaling" that doesn't give people that repulsion reaction. I have to say though, when I see people using popular buzzwords, it shows me they're not really thinking and are just LLM-like regurgitating what they've been exposed to.
- teddyh 2y ago
  They used to call those “NPC:s”, but I believe that this term has fallen out of favor.
  - EnigmaFlare 2y ago
    NPC was derogatory from the start though. It should be descriptive without implying (or always being used as) judgement.
consteval 2y ago
> this growing trend of people actively seeking to identify members of an out group who they can safely ignore is disturbing It depends, some people are radicals. For example, if you think climate change isn't real that's not even an opinion. That's just... not true. Someone who's perception of reality and reality itself are so misaligned can't be understood. Because their position doesn't come from understanding, it comes from emotions. Typically fear of the unknown, hatred, or maybe they're just dumb (dumb is the least likely). After a certain point, it crosses to the delusional. After a certain point, they're just crazy. I don't listen to the man on the corner yelling about the bugs under my skin that signal to aliens. Because that's crazy. Nor do I listen to "5G microchip in the vaccine!! Plandemic!!" type people. Because they're just crazy people. The problem is, and I don't know exactly why, but that category of person is expanding. Rapidly. My own family has fallen victim to it. And now I can't ever reason with them because their minds are so forgone they're living in an alternate reality.

EnigmaFlare 2y ago

The solution of course is to come up with a new word for "virtue signaling" that doesn't give people that repulsion reaction. I have to say though, when I see people using popular buzzwords, it shows me they're not really thinking and are just LLM-like regurgitating what they've been exposed to.

teddyh 2y ago
They used to call those “NPC:s”, but I believe that this term has fallen out of favor.
- EnigmaFlare 2y ago
  NPC was derogatory from the start though. It should be descriptive without implying (or always being used as) judgement.

consteval 2y ago

> this growing trend of people actively seeking to identify members of an out group who they can safely ignore is disturbing It depends, some people are radicals. For example, if you think climate change isn't real that's not even an opinion. That's just... not true. Someone who's perception of reality and reality itself are so misaligned can't be understood. Because their position doesn't come from understanding, it comes from emotions. Typically fear of the unknown, hatred, or maybe they're just dumb (dumb is the least likely). After a certain point, it crosses to the delusional. After a certain point, they're just crazy. I don't listen to the man on the corner yelling about the bugs under my skin that signal to aliens. Because that's crazy. Nor do I listen to "5G microchip in the vaccine!! Plandemic!!" type people. Because they're just crazy people. The problem is, and I don't know exactly why, but that category of person is expanding. Rapidly. My own family has fallen victim to it. And now I can't ever reason with them because their minds are so forgone they're living in an alternate reality.