What You Can't Say (2004)

If you believe everything you're supposed to now, how can you be sure you wouldn't also have believed everything you were supposed to if you had grown up among the plantation owners of the pre-Civil War South, or in Germany in the 1930s-- or among the Mongols in 1200, for that matter? Odds are you would have.

This is lost on most people. You'll just hear "of course it was wrong!" and this point won't be given further thought.

But if it was obvious that it was wrong, why did masses of people agree to this? They wouldn't have done it if they also saw it as wrong.

So why are we the exception today? Couldn't we be just as gullible or misguided? You have to move your own ego and preconceived notions aside to seriously address the question.

Re: What You Can't Say (2004)

#8

Post by gnaritas » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 6:09 PM UTC

robobro wrote: post #4

Do you think you'll raise your children to believe in Santa, HN?

I didn't; I've always showed my child the non-sense others believe without cause. Now 20, she has a solid grasp on reality and a firm bullshit detector.

Re: What You Can't Say (2004)

#9

Post by sirkneeland » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 6:12 PM UTC

robobro wrote: post #6

diminish wrote: post #2

tlwrl; Now that pg has more time to dive into the meta-er layers, guess we'll see some progress with the Arc language.

This article was published in 2004.

But it is no less true now.

If anything the explosion of ubiquitous and instantaneous social media has only exacerbated the tendencies towards branding unorthodox thinking as Thoughtcrime as a twittermob of snark and hatred can be summoned in hours if not minutes.

Re: What You Can't Say (2004)

#10

Post by gatehouse » Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 6:13 PM UTC

robobro wrote: post #4

Do you think you'll raise your children to believe in Santa, HN?

Honestly I will probably do as my parents did. I will buy christmas presents, label them "From: Santa", and I'll put them under the tree in the middle of the night, and I will decline to explain how they got there. My children can choose or decline to believe whatever rumors are swirling around the neighborhood.

EDIT: personally I never asked about it because I didn't want to risk stopping the gifts.