Striking the tone of “we just need to put competent people in charge instead of these morons” has several harmful effects.
-
Show this thread
-
First, it’s alienating to anyone who is insecure about whether they’re doing enough to help. “Oh no, am *I* useless? Am I the bad guy in this story?” No. The only possible “bad guys” here are those in positions of authority who are preventing effective response.
2 replies 2 retweets 25 likesShow this thread -
If you are an ordinary person who is staying home, taking care of your kids, or putting yourself on the line to do an essential job, you’re already a good guy. If you’re doing “a little” to help, your help matters.
2 replies 2 retweets 29 likesShow this thread -
You *do not* want to demoralize the helpers. You want to encourage them to keep going, not get burned out, support each other. You want to make helping look *accessible* so more people do it. You want to recognize that different kinds of people can help.
1 reply 2 retweets 20 likesShow this thread -
Secondly, and relatedly, “just put someone better in charge” is not that simple. The people who are currently in charge have their jobs for reasons. Someone chose to hire, elect, or appoint them. Those people probably don’t agree with you on who would be “better.”
5 replies 1 retweet 35 likesShow this thread -
It is a valuable informational service to accurately identify who fucked up. We used to call that “journalism.” It helps people decide whom they can trust and whom they can’t.
1 reply 3 retweets 27 likesShow this thread -
It is not valuable, but rather wishful thinking, to say “someone should do X” unless you are specifically advertising to the potential someones.
1 reply 0 retweets 18 likesShow this thread -
This is a really good thing about
@robinhanson’s style of activism that more people should emulate: he makes actual, novel, positive proposals. “We could do this, and here’s why it would be better than the status quo.” Right or wrong, it contributes new information.2 replies 7 retweets 112 likesShow this thread -
A *serious* proposal, even if it’s a rough draft, is written to and for the people you’re trying to recruit to do the thing. It says “here’s something you might want to do.” It’s constructive in that sense.
2 replies 1 retweet 19 likesShow this thread
I think he usually means them in earnest, but doesn’t put in the sort of fill-in-the-details work on implementation that a think tank would.
-
-
- 3 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.