One interesting quip I've heard from a psychologist recently, is that communication only really works well going down the dominance hierarchy. (I think it can work across.) I see a lot of the outrage driven viral media of today as being "punching down" by aspirant upper-echelon socioeconomic people onto lower-echelon people. Also, if communication only really works well going down the dominance hierarchy, doesn't thi…
Sounds interesting, who is the psychologist?
A Theory of Jerks (2014)
11–20 of 66 posts
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#12"Third, I’ve called the jerk ‘he’, for reasons you might guess. But then it seems too gendered to call the sweetheart ‘she’, so I’ve made the sweetheart a ‘he’ too." Absolutely hilarious. I guess one point he's making is that men have a problem with noncompliance, but seems to have forgotten the upside entirely
Plenty of women that take liberties also. I've always tried to be nothing than pleasant. Where does it get you?
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#13It is interesting that the meaning of"jerk" has moved very recently from meaning something like "bumpkin" to something closer to "arsehole". As the author points out, this is similar to the change in the meaning of "villain", along with several other words where a class-based insult eventually became moralised. But most of the words he mentions are old words that changed their meaning back in the days when litteral a…
If you’re interested in this kind of thing, I recommend CS Lewis’s book Studies in Words, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_Words
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#14It is interesting that the meaning of"jerk" has moved very recently from meaning something like "bumpkin" to something closer to "arsehole". As the author points out, this is similar to the change in the meaning of "villain", along with several other words where a class-based insult eventually became moralised. But most of the words he mentions are old words that changed their meaning back in the days when litteral a…
Jerk has been synonymous with "rude person" as long as I've been alive. If there was a shift, it wasn't all that recent.
I near sixty. It has meant arsehole since I was a kid, with one exception. Namely, the soda jerk. That usage was still part of the vernacular when I was young.
I am not sure what timeframe they are using for reference.
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#15One interesting quip I've heard from a psychologist recently, is that communication only really works well going down the dominance hierarchy. (I think it can work across.) I see a lot of the outrage driven viral media of today as being "punching down" by aspirant upper-echelon socioeconomic people onto lower-echelon people. Also, if communication only really works well going down the dominance hierarchy, doesn't thi…
It's known that "communication can only happen between equals." Otherwise it's order giving no matter the semantics.
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#16One interesting quip I've heard from a psychologist recently, is that communication only really works well going down the dominance hierarchy. (I think it can work across.) I see a lot of the outrage driven viral media of today as being "punching down" by aspirant upper-echelon socioeconomic people onto lower-echelon people. Also, if communication only really works well going down the dominance hierarchy, doesn't thi…
I'm confused.. The video doesn't seem related to your post?
Is there another video about what you wrote?
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#17This is the heart of the professor's theory: the jerk culpably fails to appreciate the perspectives of others around him, treating them as tools to be manipulated or idiots to be dealt with rather than as moral and epistemic peers.
so, a sociopath?
is this theory really new or interesting?
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#18"Third, I’ve called the jerk ‘he’, for reasons you might guess. But then it seems too gendered to call the sweetheart ‘she’, so I’ve made the sweetheart a ‘he’ too." Absolutely hilarious. I guess one point he's making is that men have a problem with noncompliance, but seems to have forgotten the upside entirely
I think the reason is that if he had used 'she', there would have been a shitstorm.
If you do a word-replace of all instances of 'he' with 'she' and 'his' with 'her', it becomes an entirely different article.
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#19It is interesting that the meaning of"jerk" has moved very recently from meaning something like "bumpkin" to something closer to "arsehole". As the author points out, this is similar to the change in the meaning of "villain", along with several other words where a class-based insult eventually became moralised. But most of the words he mentions are old words that changed their meaning back in the days when litteral a…
Jerk has been synonymous with "rude person" as long as I've been alive. If there was a shift, it wasn't all that recent.
And yet "rude" itself has also changed -- from meaning "unsophisticated" to meaning something more along the lines of "obnoxious".
Re: A Theory of Jerks (2014)
#20One interesting quip I've heard from a psychologist recently, is that communication only really works well going down the dominance hierarchy. (I think it can work across.) I see a lot of the outrage driven viral media of today as being "punching down" by aspirant upper-echelon socioeconomic people onto lower-echelon people. Also, if communication only really works well going down the dominance hierarchy, doesn't thi…
I'm confused.. The video doesn't seem related to your post? Is there another video about what you wrote?
Video is relevant to the article.