i dont say things i dont believe, except in very narrow contexts where im obviously putting on an act. sometimes i might wonder out loud about beliefs etc. but i dont make assertions that i havent thought about. sometimes those assertions turn out to be wrong, then i correct them
when i was a teenager i swore to live earnestly/sincerely and i think i have honored that promise
sometimes there are contexts where i *dont* say something and i regret it
but i dont think i say things i dont mean
words have too much power to be used flippantly and frivolously
They can be used *playfully*, but thats a whole different thing. there’s a lot to get into about the intersection of seriousness, solemnity, playfulness and deception/falsehood. its hard to do in plaintext, its more obvious when body language and voice etc are involved
It’s hard for me to understand how people can live like this. I’m atypical in some way on this front, I seem to have a greater need for coherence and resonance across the various spheres of my life than others. I find it very difficult & painful to partition, to do bullshit work
A sweet comment I got that makes me feel very seen: I try to talk about what I know and what I believe to be true, based on my personal experience and rigorous investigation of what seems to be true. Weird to me that not everyone does this...?
it's terrifying because you only have yourself to blame if you're wrong. if you attempt to talk from someone else's authority or some kind of mythical objective position then you can avoid all blame
Ah... I grew up getting blamed for everything no matter what I did or didn’t do, so it’s like. I might as well at least figure out how to be right in a way that makes sense to me