Triumphalist aesthetics are Normal Optimist. If it’s in primary colors and has the Imperial Eagle on it? Normal Optimist.
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Normal Pessimism is pretty rare in discourse but very common in real life. Anybody who is busy working hard to survive and has little patience for nonsense is Normal Pessimist.
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Though it's not always practiced by people in conditions of danger or scarcity, I think some of the ethos of engineering and physical/mathematical sciences is Normal Pessimist. Intense conscientiousness. (There's also a Weird Optimist madcap creativity aspect to those fields.)
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Weird Pessimism judges people for being disingenuous or unreflective. Normal Pessimism judges people for being incompetent.
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Another way of looking at this: Weird Pessimism criticizes things. Normal Optimism tries to make itself impossible to criticize. Normal Pessimism has bigger problems to worry about than criticism. Weird Optimism is too engaged/happy to worry about being criticized.
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Yet another way of looking at it: There are social gradients that push towards stupidity. Normal Optimism has a sense of those gradients, and enthusiastically goes with the flow. Weird Pessimism has a sense of those gradients and hates them (but is still kind of trapped in them.)
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Normal Pessimism is locked out of those gradients by necessity; it “can’t afford to be stupid.” And Weird Optimism ignores or is unaware of those gradients.
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My own cards on table: I was raised by Normal Pessimist parents (self-made immigrants) and respect Normal Pessimism but don’t always like it; I’m a Weird Optimist by nature, but I’ve flirted with Normal Optimism on and off; most of my friends are Weird Pessimists.
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I think the best hope for the future is probably the Weird Pessimist/Weird Optimist/Normal Pessimist alliance.
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Replying to @s_r_constantin
Could normal optimists help by repackaging and marketing weird optimism to normal optimists/pessimists? Normal pessimists are important for maintaining safety, but do they help to bring a better future beyond helping to keep the wheels on the train long enough?
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Yes, normal pessimism is a very important component in, say, putting a man on the moon. Engineering needs familiarity with Murphy’s Law.
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