Maybe stop using social media.
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I belong to a Facebook group on non-fiction books. What's fascinating there is one comes to realize that while there are some thoughtful people participating, a huge percentage of people are idiots incapable of discussion. That is, dismiss what is not a part of the tribe's code. I recently read The Diversity Delusion which details some of the problems with the acceptance strategies of colleges along with policies implemented by colleges to address "rape culture." Lastly, the author attacks some of the ways students have stifled speech. People on FB attacked the author and the book without reading a word of the book. Diversity=Good. Suggest that the implementation of some diversity initiatives may not be in the interest of those it is intended to help and concomitantly harms another group? - Your are BAD. Similar things happen when people present books on religion. Admittedly, some people ask good questions - and some provide thoughtful answers, but that happens too seldom.
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@kluurs said in Maybe stop using social media.:
I belong to a Facebook group on non-fiction books. What's fascinating there is one comes to realize that while there are some thoughtful people participating, a huge percentage of people are idiots incapable of discussion. That is, dismiss what is not a part of the tribe's code. I recently read The Diversity Delusion which details some of the problems with the acceptance strategies of colleges along with policies implemented by colleges to address "rape culture." Lastly, the author attacks some of the ways students have stifled speech. People on FB attacked the author and the book without reading a word of the book. Diversity=Good. Suggest that the implementation of some diversity initiatives may not be in the interest of those it is intended to help and concomitantly harms another group? - Your are BAD. Similar things happen when people present books on religion. Admittedly, some people ask good questions - and some provide thoughtful answers, but that happens too seldom.
Woke Racism by McWhorter is probably the most important and insightful book deconstructing American tribal political culture and all the virtuous feels it relies on, but it’s not as if it made a dent in any leftist mind space. This goes to show the truth of its primary insight, which is that the race narrative, that most foundational piece of leftist political ideology, is a religion.
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@Aqua-Letifer "I don't think it really profits anyone to not understand something."
It depends on the something. It's like selectivity in the matter of which news items you choose to investigate. If there are more news (or quote-unquote "news") outlets than are necessary, does their being available itself obligate me to peruse them all? I don't think so. I learn what I want to learn and let the rest go.
In any case, the understanding of whether something profits you or is not always accessible to you. I may eventually regret not understanding something, but maybe I won't.
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A book suggested by one of the respondents was The Coddling of the American Mind. It's next on my burgeoning "must read" list. It's odd that people choose to only read authors, posts, and articles consistent with their own views. I try to read things from thoughtful people who I disagree with - and even sometimes a few of the non-thoughtful people just to make myself feel good about myself.
I have been toying with the idea of taking some graduate classes at age 68. I wonder about my ability to refrain from creating micro-aggressions. Could be interesting though.
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@kluurs "A book suggested by one of the respondents was The Coddling of the American Mind.
That sounds interesting!
Excerpt from Amazon: "First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths are incompatible with basic psychological principles, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. They interfere with healthy development. Anyone who embraces these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—is less likely to become an autonomous adult able to navigate the bumpy road of life."
6,034 ratings, average 4.5 stars.
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@Horace said in Maybe stop using social media.:
My 15 second youtube video where I started an air fryer got 1300 views within several hours of putting it up. And yet my creative genius is still denied by some. Sad.
How long did it take you to view that 1250 times?
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@bachophile said in Maybe stop using social media.:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/opinion/twitter-elon-musk.html
Paywall. But I am curious was Jane Coaston has to say. I’ve spent some time listening to her share her opinions on Vox podcasts.
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@Horace this is the gist
"Most people don’t utilize the platform or care all that much about it. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that 77 percent of American adults did not use Twitter. Most of those who do tweet don’t visit the site every day, according to that survey. A Pew study, also from 2021, found that 97 percent of tweets are produced by the top 25 percent of Twitter users, the people who are most active on the platform."
"Twitter also can distort political reality. If you spend a lot of time there, you are most likely seeing other people who tweet a lot, a group that doesn’t represent real life. So you might vastly overestimate the number of people who support, say, packing the Supreme Court and underestimate the number of people who don’t vote at all. "
"And sometimes Twitter lends itself to the unfortunate Extremely Online attitude, which I defined a few years ago as being deeply enmeshed in internet culture and believing that events in that milieu — like trending topics on Twitter and viral Facebook posts — matter in the offline world, too."
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@bachophile said in Maybe stop using social media.:
@Horace this is the gist
"Most people don’t utilize the platform or care all that much about it. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that 77 percent of American adults did not use Twitter. Most of those who do tweet don’t visit the site every day, according to that survey. A Pew study, also from 2021, found that 97 percent of tweets are produced by the top 25 percent of Twitter users, the people who are most active on the platform."
"Twitter also can distort political reality. If you spend a lot of time there, you are most likely seeing other people who tweet a lot, a group that doesn’t represent real life. So you might vastly overestimate the number of people who support, say, packing the Supreme Court and underestimate the number of people who don’t vote at all. "
"And sometimes Twitter lends itself to the unfortunate Extremely Online attitude, which I defined a few years ago as being deeply enmeshed in internet culture and believing that events in that milieu — like trending topics on Twitter and viral Facebook posts — matter in the offline world, too."
I listened to a recent podcast with Ezra Klein, who is this writer’s boss. He thinks Twitter is the most important narrative shaper in America, and he thinks narratives are fundamental to all of politics. I suspect Ms Coaston would eagerly agree with his sentiments, even as she writes columns like this one where she pretends to be above it all, and to keep it all in perspective.