31–40 of 249 posts
Its too late, tech is growing more divided in hiring and its customer base. Now that google and other tech startups make blacklists of "them" that they want to block promotions and ban from working with people and groups, it seems us vs them is well embraced by the tech community. And left-leaning google/facebook/youtube/twitter using alt-right as a banner to ban conservatives, then using "Truth masters" like snopes/…
The real question is how you're allowed to interact with The Enemy. Refusing to work with The Enemy is something one does at their own peril.
I think this is going to be the next big challenge in social tech: Contact: The consequences of growing up amid diversity just discussed bring us to the effects of prolonged contact on Us/Theming. In the 1950s the psychologist Gordon Allport proposed “contact theory.” Inaccurate version: bring Us-es and Thems together (say, teenagers from two hostile nations in a summer camp), animosities disappear, similarities star…
Forced anonymity perhaps? Suppose you're a Striper and I'm a Dotter (from the deadly enemy Stripe and Dot tribes), but we both like to play guitar. Well if you show up on my guitar forum I'll be 'who let that filthy Striper in here?!' and will interpret even innocent participation as attempts to stripe up the place, regardless of whether I have been trying to take it over for the Dots or not. But if we're just Guitar…
This is where countries with some sort of mandatory service may have us beat. And maybe it explains why American policy was so focused after the big national wars. I don't think there's a better way to force camaraderie. But then it becomes Us vs Them on the other side of the border.
I think this phenomenon is the fundamental problem of any two-party system and is one of the issues in American politics. The "us vs them" feeling is a lot less strong when there are multiple parties. This feeling leads to more divisiveness in politics and eventually trickles down to the whole population.
I think US vs THEM is incomparably bigger than the question of politics. Would 9/11, Vietnam, Iraq, hollocaust, or most wars for that matter have been possible without Us vs them? What about most corruption? What about class systems?
This is where countries with some sort of mandatory service may have us beat. And maybe it explains why American policy was so focused after the big national wars. I don't think there's a better way to force camaraderie. But then it becomes Us vs Them on the other side of the border.
This is where countries with some sort of mandatory service may have us beat. And maybe it explains why American policy was so focused after the big national wars. I don't think there's a better way to force camaraderie. But then it becomes Us vs Them on the other side of the border.
Nationalism gives people a way to draw the friend/enemy distinction at the border and a way to resolve differences without civil war.
To the extent that America draws its friend/enemy distinction inwards, civil war becomes inevitable.
It's a real bummer that we think of nationalism as a dirty thing, in its highest form it should be collaborative. One can believe that America is for Americans and illegals need to go back AND believe that those people should improve their own country. The MAGA crowd wouldn't resent Mexico for doing well, or at least there'd be less resentment than the status quo where Mexican nationals come here and misbehave.
Unpopular opinion - Is this something that we should seek to overcome entirely? These judgement calls are hard-wired into us for a reason. Whilst there are scenarios in which it is bad, there are scenarios in which it is good.
I can't think of any examples in which it is good. I also think that is a mischaracterization of the problem, and of the solution. Our instinct is to trust those in our communities, and distrust those outside our communities. While that was useful in the past, two significant things have changed: 1. We are in a civilized society where it is to our advantage to begin relationships with trust rather than distrust. 2. W…
Bad actors exist in the world and can and do team up. If you adhere to the view that Nobody Is Truly Bad that's nice but you won't be able to defend yourself or anyone else when attacked and thus raise the incentives for non-cooperators.There's a reason your body has an immune system.
I think this phenomenon is the fundamental problem of any two-party system and is one of the issues in American politics. The "us vs them" feeling is a lot less strong when there are multiple parties. This feeling leads to more divisiveness in politics and eventually trickles down to the whole population.
It's a catch 22, since that divisiveness strengthens the divide, and that divide strengthens the two parties. The biggest thing we are missing in the fight against the two party system is confidence. We need people to be confident that they can elect someone from outside the two parties, and that those people can effect change in politics. The problem is that individuals see greater participation by others as a depen…
A first-past-the-post [1] voting scheme will always result in 2 parties (assuming it doesn't collapse into a single-party autocracy) due to the spoiler [2] 3rd party vote problem.
It's not psychology but basic probability math and game theory.
Why is not fixed? Because this is the cheapest way for the moneyed elite to both a) wield power, and b) prevent that power from getting concentrated (which could result in a powerful dictator who doesn't listen to them).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoiler_effect
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a catch 22, since that divisiveness strengthens the divide, and that divide strengthens the two parties. The biggest thing we are missing in the fight against the two party system is confidence. We need people to be confident that they can elect someone from outside the two parties, and that those people can effect change in politics. The problem is that individuals see greater participation by others as a depen…
No, the biggest thing we're missing in the fight against 2-party system is an actual representative voting scheme. A first-past-the-post [1] voting scheme will always result in 2 parties (assuming it doesn't collapse into a single-party autocracy) due to the spoiler [2] 3rd party vote problem. It's not psychology but basic probability math and game theory. Why is not fixed? Because this is the cheapest way for the mo…
What I was unclear about is that our best method for fighting the current system is to convince a significant portion of the electorate to vote for a third party candidate.
Because we all know the system is against us, we are afraid to work together to circumvent it.
We can't replace the system until we use our votes to do so.