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The high price of mistrust

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Re: The high price of mistrust

#171

Post by jrexilius »

bsenftner wrote: post #125
yamrzou wrote: post #88

The breakdown of trust in a society is a vicious cycle that seems hard to break. When a mistrust dynamic sets in, how can it be reversed?

A method to address mistrust is to initiate "virtue circles": do people unrequested favors, without expectation of any return. Just do it; it actually feels good. And it is infectious . Others start doing it too, and double so when you subtly exhibit the joy of helping others without any expectations. Once more than 3 people in any social circle start this type of positive interaction, a positive culture shift occurs…

Very much this. I would amplify it a bit and say talk to real humans in real life (not through a screen). Be a good neighbor, smile and greet people, help strangers. It sounds trite, but I think its the best path. A persons physical community is more important that twitter (or HN for that matter). Culture is made from the choices and shared knowledge of individuals. Being open to others is a prerequisite to influencing change. Accepting imperfections and poor decissions in others is a prerequisite to improving things. I don't see a magical switch that can be flipped to suddenly change a culture, nor do I see secret cabals controling us from the shadows, so no help from the illuminati or whatever.. It's the choices we make and the views we hold about our fellow citizens, and those are better in real-life than on-screen.

Re: The high price of mistrust

#172

Post by b0rsuk »

Generally the farther east you go in the countries of the former Soviet block, the less trust there is. Poland has low trust, but it's a lot lower in Russia and if you smile to strangers you may get sullen glances or insults.

When I had a sprained ankle and was walking to the doctor with walking sticks, a car stopped by and I was asked if I want a ride. The question was in English. It's a moment like that when you realize no one else offered help.

It's worst when governments demonize journalists and media. One youtube talk I watched listed that as a sure sign democracy is under attack in a country.

Re: The high price of mistrust

#173

Post by mcguire »

adolph wrote: post #91

I offer this feedback with the utmost respect for Farnam Street and Shane Parrish: 1. Loss is mentioned a lot but not mentioned is linking the asymmetric movement of trust to the cognitive bias of loss aversion. 2. Aside from Putnam, another take worth mentioning is Steven M. R. Covey's The Speed of Trust which speaks to the link of trust to performance within organizations. 3. The interface, boundary or contract is…

Silent trade: "Group A would leave trade goods in a prominent position and signal, by gong, fire, or drum for example, that they had left goods. Group B would then arrive at the spot, examine the goods and deposit their trade goods or money that they wanted to exchange and withdraw. Group A would then return and either accept the trade by taking the goods from Group B or withdraw again leaving Group B to add to or change out items to create an equal value. The trade ends when Group A accepts Group B's offer and removes the offered goods leaving Group B to remove the original goods."

Re: The high price of mistrust

#174

Post by luxuryballs »

Just like the election integrity debate that was almost entirely erased from social media, Romney said “an audit won’t satisfy them, only telling them the truth will”, which is terrifying because he doesn’t know the truth either, because nobody looked.

When it comes to a democracy we shouldn’t be required to just trust the officials, we should be allowed to question them, but we shouldn’t have to trust them. What I mean is the system needs to work in such a way that trust isn’t required.

They are still stonewalling the audits in places like Arizona, last I heard the Senate is recalling the election board for ignoring their orders to provide access for inspections.

Re: The high price of mistrust

#175

Post by jdbernard »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #156
spamizbad wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being downvoted, but you hit the nail on the head. I feel like for people of my vintage (born in the early 80s) the whole war on terror was extremely caustic to my generational cohort. It was a weird environment where every trusted institution in society lined-up in support of both wars, and then actively worked to sideline any debate and discussion. The Dixie Chicks got infamously cancelled for saying somethi…

>there's basically "meritocratic" caste system in this country: if you go to the right school, get into the right industry, and make enough money you are [ ... ] This is a description of the absolute opposite of what "meritocratic" means.

It's weird. You're right, but those are still seen as "meritocratic", and one could argue were meritocratic historically, at least in some degree, because in theory you get into the right school by scholastic merit, you get into the right industry by merit of your learned and demonstrated skillset and willingness to work in that industry, and you have money by merit of having created value from your hard work in industry.

In practice you get into the right schools because you belong to the right social circles, you get into the right industry because you come from the right schools, or are in the right social circles, and you make enough money because you got into the right schools and industry or inherited by virtue of being born into the right social circles...

Re: The high price of mistrust

#176

Post by fullshark »

punnerud wrote: post #119

I feel Clubhouse is the first app that is reversing this trend. Only talk and connecting strangers.

It seems like every social media platform / message board had high levels of trust initially, when the user base was smallish and naive. Maybe it's because they all grew on the backs of teenagers/college kids who are more trusting, or it's just the early days of the platform are more exciting and that seems to naturally build trust among users.

Re: The high price of mistrust

#177

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

dragonwriter wrote: post #167
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>there's basically "meritocratic" caste system in this country: if you go to the right school, get into the right industry, and make enough money you are [ ... ] This is a description of the absolute opposite of what "meritocratic" means.

> This is a description of the absolute opposite of what “meritocratic” means. Well, its actually exactly what the use that brought “meritocracy” into the common lexicon was referring to, though that use was satirical.

No, "meritocracy" was brought into the common lexicon in the 1960s, specifically as an alternative to existing forms of social structure. A system where it did not matter which school you went to, in particular.

I do not read the GP as being satirical in their use, although the use of quotes makes it somewhat unclear.

Re: The high price of mistrust

#178

Post by mcguire »

itsyaboi wrote: post #103
pbronez wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah... the 50s only look good if you ignore the massive racial, gender and environmental problems. US economy was great with the post-war boom, but there's a reason why there are so many TV shows about the rotten foundations of 50s glam.

As opposed to the massive racial, gender and environmental problems we are currently facing, with a additional pyramidion of used needles and feces?

Those massive problems are significantly less massive than they were then.

Re: The high price of mistrust

#179

Post by xyzzyz »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #160
xyzzyz wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contrary to what might be the common understanding in SV, we've actually had cabs before we had Uber. They also involved total strangers driving us home from bars. We've also had people rent their private homes as lodging: that's how I vacationed with my parents in Eastern Europe in early 1990s. Even today, if you go to any town on Baltic Sea, you'll find plenty of "Rooms" signs (in local language) on private homes;…

Uber and AirBnB actually burned extreme amounts of trust. Blatantly illegal business practices and general sociopathy of the former, facilitating destruction of local neighbourhoods in case of the latter - adding an app on top of existing practices doesn't pay back for what it cost to get there.

> Blatantly illegal business practices and general sociopathy of the former,

Trust, morality and legality are not the same thing. Sure, Uber was operating illegally in many places, but millions of people used these illegal services and saw nothing wrong with it. They didn’t see using an unlicensed cab company as anything bad.

Just because something is illegal doesn’t make it morally wrong, or socially destructive. There have been plenty of cases where it’s the laws that are morally wrong and socially destructive. If you want to argue that Uber destroyed trust, you can’t simply say it broke the law and call it a day, you need also to argue that the law they broke was good and desirable.

So, what was the evil and socially destructive thing that Uber actually did?

Re: The high price of mistrust

#180

Post by everybodyknows »

luxuryballs wrote: post #174

Just like the election integrity debate that was almost entirely erased from social media, Romney said “an audit won’t satisfy them, only telling them the truth will”, which is terrifying because he doesn’t know the truth either, because nobody looked. When it comes to a democracy we shouldn’t be required to just trust the officials, we should be allowed to question them, but we shouldn’t have to trust them. What I m…

>nobody looked

Numerous lawsuits were filed, all failed. Or are you suggesting the courts are corrupt as well?

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