Conversation

some of the rationalists i'm around view our society as profoundly, infuriatingly dysfunctional, made more tragic when many of the solutions are easy, low-hanging fruit. There's a sense of deep rage from seeing the clearly saner way the world could be. but- 1/

289

Aella

@Aella_Girl

i think i have this with general conversational/social norms. it feels like the way we talk with each other and treat other people is profoundly, infuriatingly dysfunctional, and if we just took some of the low-hanging solutions, things would be so much saner. 2/

8:51 PM · Dec 31, 2022

14.5K

Views

Replying to

like, really basic stuff that everybody should agree makes sense. Like, "don't try to shame a behavior by pointing out an unrelated behavior" or "be really careful about making claims about other people's motivations unless you have super strong evidence"

291

Aella

@Aella_Girl

Dec 31, 2022

or "don't insult people". Like, just... don't? In a sane world (or as the rats would say, "on my home planet", people just... don't insult each other, almost ever. I feels like I'm on an alien planet where everyone just agrees that insults are a valid form of debate.

296

Replying to

You could write the sequences equivalent for social norms? Survey people on how intuitive it all feels, get annoying comments about bias and sample size, profit

Replying to

If it’s working well enough for most people isn’t it by definition functional?

Replying to

Especially bad with Aspergers. I think its getting worse because of natural (sexual?) selection. From /r/aspergers (I don't agree about some group of actual humans being responsible for the rules tho)