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Because there are lots of people who do great things who aren't assholes. We as a society should prioritize valourzing the non-assholes who do great things ove
by Teever 1y ago
Because there are lots of people who do great things who aren't assholes.
We as a society should prioritize valourzing the non-assholes who do great things over the assholes who do great things.
- bdangubic 1y agowhy?
- Teever 1y agoCollective action to dissuade assholes from being assholes is a net positive for everyone. The less assholes you have to deal with in your day to day affairs the better off you are.
- jojobas 1y agoThere's no dissuading someone from being an asshole.
- bdangubic 1y agoyup! and I love they are around and celebrated as that helps weed out people not worthy of your time better than most other things
- DonHopkins 1y agoApparently not. Which is why we should call them out instead of whitewashing them.
- hollerith 1y agoBy the time you start advocating for "collective action", you should have defined what the goal of the action is a lot more precisely than "dissuade assholes from being assholes" because a social movement with an ambiguous goal is a menace to society: there is a reason no one want another witch hunt. If the goal of the collective action is to cancel anyone who (like Watson did) asserts that one race of people is on average less intelligence than another race, then say so.
- nradov 1y agoIs that really true thought? I can't quantify this but qualitatively it seems like most of the people who accomplished great things really were assholes. I mean even here in the tech industry think of the people we commonly consider great. If you look deeply into their lives and talk to people who knew them personally you'll usually find they were kind of jerks. Is that just a coincidence or could there be a causal relationship?
- aoasadflkjafl 1y agoMore people are simply more aware of Watson and not Bernal, Klug, Wilkins, Fankuchen, Hodgkin, i.e. other people from that era involved in x-ray crystallography, many of whom made significantly more and larger advances, precisely because he was a self-aggrandizing and controversial asshole while they were not.
- nradov 1y agoAre you sure they were not assholes? How much do you really know about their personal lives? I'm not trying to criticize those people or imply anything about them. But in my experience a lot of assholes kind of fly under the radar because they're not in the public eye and no one speaks up.
- DonHopkins 1y agoThen call out the ones you know for a fact are assholes and racists, and stop adding to the problem by whitewashing and excusing and carrying their water. I personally know LOTS of brilliant people in the bay area tech scene who are not assholes, and are wonderful kind people, so if you only know assholes, you're hanging out with and licking the boots of the wrong people, and that's your problem, and you should re-think who your friends and heros are.
- nradov 1y agoHold on there buddy, you totally missed the point. I also know lots of brilliant people in the Bay Area tech scene who are not assholes. This thread isn't about brilliant people, it's about those who are commonly considered "great". Like, let's say, Steve Jobs. And I flagged your comment for accusing me of licking boots. You don't even know me. Do better.
- Aeglaecia 1y agomay I ask which of the following situations is preferrable: an asshole who saves your life, or a non asshole who lets you die because its the right thing to do?
- acjohnson55 1y agoWhy would it be the right thing to do to let me die?
- kulahan 1y agoI have no dog in this particular fight, but it's worth mentioning that you shouldn't endanger yourself to save someone else. It usually just creates two victims without professional support/equipment. Just seemed like a fun thought experiment.
- Rapzid 1y agoI don't believe this to be true; is there any evidence? Outside drownings where people can't swim? People save other people's lives all the time. We hear about it and also would hear about people dying in the attempt and yet.. Don't hear much about it.
- kulahan 1y agoAnd we need to do this on an obituary?