4 ms·

Almost no one is a dick on purpose. Everyone belives in their truths. Mutually incompatible truths. That is perceived as being dick from other person's truth pe

Almost no one is a dick on purpose. Everyone belives in their truths. Mutually incompatible truths. That is perceived as being dick from other person's truth perspective. That's the tragedy of situation. Everybody is right to some extent. Plus ego plus interest plus strong belives makes hard to move from own truth. So no, we can't stop being dicks. We're just being normal humans.

zosima 2y ago
It would be nice if that was true. But school and university has taught people to first and foremost be obedient. That means a large majority of people doesn't care about the truth at all, only what the relevant authorities are saying. Many of those authorities have learnt that deciding what is true based on reality is good and all, but you live longer and better by making friends and not disagreeing with them. This is a societal failing.
- ninalanyon 2y ago
  > school and university has taught people to first and foremost be obedient. That's not inevitable. I count myself lucky that it didn't happen to me. Unfortunately I don't know how to improve schools to the level of those I attended over half a century ago. And I lack the get up and go to make it happen anyway.
- nathan_compton 2y ago
  This is such a weird perspective because the attitude I associate with people who go through the university system on the academic path is not obedience at all, but ruthless self advancement. Like literally where are all these obedient people you are talking about? I would characterize the problem with science as being a failure to increase the available resources commensurate with the population of people capable of doing science. In this situation, the competition becomes sufficiently fierce that it is statistically better to lie, cheat or knee-cap your competitors in some other way than it is to actually do good science, which is unreliable. What you see as fealty to scientific authority is actually just a system which has become totally dominated by resource competition to the exclusion of its actual purpose.
godelski 2y ago
> Almost no one is a dick on purpose. This is true, but that does not mean people are not being dicks. What is important is to have self reflection and to recognize when you have been a dick, to apologize (make amends if necessary), and try not to repeat. Yes, habits die hard, but we can still improve. But the biggest dick move is to double down. We've created a culture where we act as if being unintentionally wrong is a bad thing and that the worst thing you can do is admit a mistake and self-correct. But we are always wrong (to some degree) and so the only thing there is is to self-correct. So yes, we can stop being dicks. It's how humans evolved. We wouldn't have expanded from our small tribes to villages, to cities, to countries, to a global economy if we weren't capable of this. The arc may be slow and noisy, but it has always expanded to be more inclusive.

zosima 2y ago

It would be nice if that was true. But school and university has taught people to first and foremost be obedient. That means a large majority of people doesn't care about the truth at all, only what the relevant authorities are saying. Many of those authorities have learnt that deciding what is true based on reality is good and all, but you live longer and better by making friends and not disagreeing with them. This is a societal failing.

ninalanyon 2y ago
> school and university has taught people to first and foremost be obedient. That's not inevitable. I count myself lucky that it didn't happen to me. Unfortunately I don't know how to improve schools to the level of those I attended over half a century ago. And I lack the get up and go to make it happen anyway.
nathan_compton 2y ago
This is such a weird perspective because the attitude I associate with people who go through the university system on the academic path is not obedience at all, but ruthless self advancement. Like literally where are all these obedient people you are talking about? I would characterize the problem with science as being a failure to increase the available resources commensurate with the population of people capable of doing science. In this situation, the competition becomes sufficiently fierce that it is statistically better to lie, cheat or knee-cap your competitors in some other way than it is to actually do good science, which is unreliable. What you see as fealty to scientific authority is actually just a system which has become totally dominated by resource competition to the exclusion of its actual purpose.

godelski 2y ago

> Almost no one is a dick on purpose. This is true, but that does not mean people are not being dicks. What is important is to have self reflection and to recognize when you have been a dick, to apologize (make amends if necessary), and try not to repeat. Yes, habits die hard, but we can still improve. But the biggest dick move is to double down. We've created a culture where we act as if being unintentionally wrong is a bad thing and that the worst thing you can do is admit a mistake and self-correct. But we are always wrong (to some degree) and so the only thing there is is to self-correct. So yes, we can stop being dicks. It's how humans evolved. We wouldn't have expanded from our small tribes to villages, to cities, to countries, to a global economy if we weren't capable of this. The arc may be slow and noisy, but it has always expanded to be more inclusive.