There's a conservative meme going around mocking an antiracist education packet that lists a bunch of stereotypically "white" traits, which they find ironic because they think of those traits as objectively superior traits One of those traits is "low time preference"
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Like, both in the sense that if something eventually happens in fifty years it's of no use to me, who will be dead by then, and for whom it might as well have never happened at all And because it actually WON'T happen in fifty years, it will never happen at all
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We're slowly coming around to the realization that in human power relationships, if nothing happens NOW then nothing is going to happen Anyone who actually gives a shit about helping you will do something to help you NOW Anyone who says otherwise is a fucking liar
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So, yes, this valorization of "low time preference" or "future time orientation" is very much in the category of "white nonsense" It's bullshit, and it's bullshit of a kind specifically crafted to help the assholes in charge stay in charge forever Stop teaching it to your kids
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I think about this a lot with this discourse about trans kids and transition "Why do you have to decide NOW, why can't you wait ten years or so and see if you still feel dysphoric" Well aside from the fact that going through the wrong puberty leaves irrevocable scars PEOPLE DIE
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LIFE IS FINITE, MORTALITY IS A UNIVERSAL TRUTH Giving up even ONE year is losing something priceless you'll never get back, never mind ten All of these "reasonable delays" mean some percentage of people will die unexpectedly and never get the reward at all
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Present Me matters more than Future Me, because Present Me exists *right now* and Future Me doesn't exist and may never exist at all There's always a chance that you're asking a real person to sacrifice for some imaginary person who will never come into being
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Future Me might regret any number of decisions I make right now but he doesn't get a vote because he's not real I might get shot in the back while walking down the street tomorrow and Future Me who wishes I'd saved my money instead of blowing it on booze just won't exist ever
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almost as if the thing that accomplishes your goal is better than the thing that doesn't, ceteris paribus
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of course the ceteris are not paribus so we must look at the other consequences, in which case tearing down the statue is still better
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