We do not, in fact, have a shortage of competence, dedication, courage, or generosity. A lot of people have risen to the occasion spectacularly, and a lot more would do so if they had clearer guidance about how they can help.
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You could be doing the “journalism” thing I mentioned earlier — informing people that their leaders screwed up. That’s good.
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Or you could be trying to change minds about a broader cultural attitude...which is what I’m constitutionally suspicious of.
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Telling people “you don’t think this yet but you Should” or “you won’t like this, but it’s true” is a dominance trick. It’s a neg. it plays on the fear of being criticized.
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“Only a [insert terrible name here] would disagree with me” is a rhetorical tactic for getting weak-minded people to passively go along with you. It’s not a way to attract competent people to actively buy in and help you.
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It’s kind of like — I find it skeevy to guilt-trip people into giving to charity. “You SHOULD be more generous.” The reality is, people are already pretty generous. You can provide donors *value* by offering them unusually good opportunities to help.
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“Put more effort/attention into MY favored project or I’ll withdraw my approval from you” is a song anyone can sing, and the loudest, nastiest voices are the best at it. I don’t think it’s a smart tactic for those whose causes are actually good.
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Yes, I admit I’m sensitive about this personally. I think shaming people for not being good enough causes a lot of toxic side-effects. I know sometimes the right thing to do *is* to try harder, but there are ways to encourage effort that install less malware, I think.
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Good exhortatory content makes doing a hard thing look necessary, exciting, and *doable by you*. Skip the last part and you just demotivate people.
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End of conversation
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I think these are fine goals! But I think sometimes the actual instruction trends more in the direction of “be depressed and bitter” or “consume more content in this genre”
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