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We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

freddiedeboer.substack.com

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Re: We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

#31

Post by moistly »

michaelmrose wrote: post #28
jokethrowaway wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, are we even experiencing the same world? Democrats are in favour of giving the government lockdown power because of a flu with sub 1% mortality rate, promote cancel culture, promote racial discrimination ("positive discrimination") and limits freedom of speech ("hate speech"). 20 years ago I was often debating against republicans who were against gay marriage and cannabis legalisation. Oh, how the tables have tu…

Covid isn't "a flu" and 1% mortality rate combined with very high permissibility in a disease that hospitalizes more like 10% of naive hosts and often keeps people in the hospital for weeks or even months is on net potentially disastrous because it had the potential to trivially overwhelm our health care resources leaving us with a mortality rate that would have included many of the 9% who would survive with hospital…

> the effect if it were to crash our health care system

The effects that we did see when it crashed the Italian, New York, UK, Iranian, Russian, etc. health care systems. Wherever sars-cov2 got away on the population, the results were absolutely devastating to the healthcare system. Blows me away that there are people who forget seeing bodies piling up like cordwood during the worst weeks of this pandemic.

Re: We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

#32

Post by moistly »

furgooswft13 wrote: post #24
MattRix wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After the era of Trump and now this current era of book banning and preventing race-based topics in schools (among other things), I’m not sure how you can say the Authoritarianism comes from the left… unless you’re talking about temporary measures that were taken due to a global pandemic.

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Re: We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

#34

Post by senectus1 »

monkeydreams wrote: post #23
nyokodo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We hold to tribes first, not beliefs. By default yes, but we broadly overcome the default in many aspects of life so we should be collectively beating back political tribalism as much as possible. We’re not slaves to our basest instincts.

> We’re not slaves to our basest instincts. Individually, yes, but only in a limited fashion. But with so many paths for tribalism, with each taking so much effort to bring under our conscious control, that the average person only seems to change the direction of their tribalism rather than bringing tribalism itself under control.

We use beliefs to link tribes to a common cause.

A fantastic example of this is USA. so many different Abrahamic tribes all operating under the same beliefs to push a common social and political system.

Beliefs are earworms and dangerous.

Re: We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

#35

Post by LeonB »

netsharc wrote: post #5

This article smells like cynicism pretending to be self-congratulating intelligence. Painting whole swathes of groups to be all the same ("Liberals cheer the FBI and CIA, call for limitless censorship, and insist on blind faith in tech giants and pharmaceutical companies. Conservatives have cast off Christianity, their north star, the orienting principle of all they believed, discarding it offhandedly like a gum wrap…

Perfectly put. Without the reductionism the whole article falls apart.

Re: We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

#36

Post by ncmncm »

nyokodo wrote: post #16
civilized wrote: post #7

Oh, I don't know. Whatever the faults of $CURRENT_YEAR, it still compares favorably to that time when we randomly invaded a country because a two-pizza team in the White House thought it'd be awesome. And then we re-elected the guy who led the circus, because YEAH! WARTIME PRESIDENT! USA! USA! USA! We've always been tyrannized by a majority of unprincipled, easily-duped, low-information voters. This is why democracy…

> unprincipled, easily-duped, low-information voters The Iraq war was authorized by Congress including most of the Democrats and The NY Times and other left media backed the war, at least at first. It’s sad to say that it was a bipartisan war albeit with a vocal minority who opposed it.

No post body was provided.

Re: We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

#37

Post by ncmncm »

Animats wrote: post #8

It's kind of a weird rant, but a real problem. The divisive effect has been to weaken the US as a world power. Meanwhile, Russia's leadership apparently has just issued the orders to move on Ukraine.[1] Putin sees the US as weak and divided, and is taking the opportunity to restore the Russian Empire. (One step at a time. First South Osseta, then Crimea, then Donetsk. How big a bite this time?) [1] https://www.cnn.co…

Weakening the US as a world power seems OK until you look at who is stepping up to take its place.

Re: We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

#38

Post by jansen555 »

monkeydreams wrote: post #10

When people start claiming that we are experiencing 'a world gone mad' or 'group hysteria' or, as in this case, "Definitional Collapse", it makes me wonder if that person's context or worldview is one of those that is under pressure. The world is, as it always has been, tribal. The pressure to ensure that the out-group stays out and the in-group is protected is stronger than ever in the face of ever-present screaming…

No post body was provided.

Re: We Are Experiencing Definitional Collapse

#40

Post by smitty1e »

> Conservatives have cast off Christianity, their north star, the orienting principle of all they believed, discarding it offhandedly like a gum wrapper.

Baptist here. Yeah, we're on the same course we ever were.

If "Conservatives" have veered off, it's because they've more regard for the Gospel of Klaus Schwab than for the one pertaining to that one dude.

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