Will Shetterly's Blog, page 157

The oldest exercise in moral philosophy: Rationalizing Animal #4

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” —John Kenneth Galbraith

Galbraith was a liberal Canadian, which may be why he didn't notice that he could've replaced "the modern conservative" with "the capitalist and the monarchist", but he's right about the oldest exercise in moral philosophy: the rich love to rationalize being rich while others suffer. The pretentious ape wants...

the oldest exercise in moral philosophy: rationalizing animal #4

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” —John Kenneth Galbraith

Galbraith was a liberal Canadian, which may be why he didn't notice that he could've replaced "the modern conservative" with "the capitalist and the monarchist", but he's right about the oldest exercise in moral philosophy: the rich love to rationalize being rich while others suffer. The pretentious ape wants...

Everyone dances to the Amygdala Hijack: Rationalizing Animal #3

Humans react, then think. The reason? The limbic hijack or amygdala hijack. Our emotions are controlled by the brain's limbic system and more specifically, by the amygdala. The Amygdala hijack is

the term to describe emotional responses from people which are immediate and overwhelming, and out of measure with the actual stimulus because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat.

...'not all limbic hijackings are distressing. When a joke strikes someone as so uproarious...

Call-out Culture is an Outrage Culture

Adria Richards' decision to photograph and tweet a picture of guys joking about dongles rather than ask them to be quieter or to stop acting like thirteen-year-olds is an example of call-out culture, as she notes in her version of what happened, Forking and Dongle Jokes Don’t Belong At Tech Conferences: "Yesterday, I publicly called out a group of guys at the PyCon conference who were not being respectful to the community."

In defense of Adria Richards and call-out culture claims this...

You will trust this post if you agree with it: Rationalizing Animal #2

"Men readily believe what they want to believe." —Julius Caesar

"The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it." —Francis Bacon

Confirmation Bias is the human tendency to trust information that supports our beliefs and reject information that doesn't. I can only think of one reason why humans would benefit from confirmation bias: it's easiest to be a happy memb...

You will trust this post if you agree with it: rationalizing animal #2

"Men readily believe what they want to believe." —Julius Caesar

"The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it." —Francis Bacon

Confirmation Bias is the human tendency to trust information that supports our beliefs and reject information that doesn't. I can only think of one reason why humans would benefit from confirmation bias: it's easiest to be a happy memb...

Trolls can make you doubt this post: Rationalizing Animal #1

"When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." -Mark Twain

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The "nasty effect" comes from a study of 1,183 participants who read a fake blog story about new technology. Half were...

...exposed to civil reader comments and the other half to rude ones — though the actual content, length and intensity of the comments, which varied from being supportive of the new technology to being wary of the risks, were consistent across both groups. The only differen...

Trolls can make you doubt this post: rationalizing animal #1

"When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." -Mark Twain

•
The "nasty effect" comes from a study of 1,183 participants who read a fake blog story about new technology. Half were...

...exposed to civil reader comments and the other half to rude ones — though the actual content, length and intensity of the comments, which varied from being supportive of the new technology to being wary of the risks, were consistent across both groups. The only differen...

outrage culture, the rationalizing animal, and belief systems are B.S.

"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this." – Bertrand Russell

"Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason." – Oscar Wilde

History's greatest comic was Carl Linnaeus, who named our species homo sapiens. Aristotle was no slouch either when he defined man as a rational animal. After making my post about Heinlein or my dad or someone else observ...

outrage culture and capitalism: on firing Adria Richards and Michael Brutsch, and blacklisting Orson Scott Card

Outrage culture loves getting people fired. Adrian Chen at Gawker outed Michael Brutsch as Violentacrez, even though Brutsch told Chen he was, as it turned out, rightfully afraid for his job. A petition was circulated to get Orson Scott Card blacklisted at DC Comics.

But now the worm has begun to eat itself: Adria Richards humiliated a man on Twitter who was sitting near her and making jokes about software to a friend. He was fired. Then Richards was fired. Here's a good account: Adr...