I've reached the point I assume everyone is lying to me except for people I personally know and trust. There's no benefit in telling the truth and all the benefit in manipulative lies.
When I was younger, I had no idea how many people - consciously or otherwise - view language entirely as transactional. They treat all communication as an exercise in extracting benefits from (or causing harm to) other people. There is almost no adherence to principle or truth or reality. It goes beyond mere rational self-interest and into the realm of pathologically dishonest existence.
When you don’t know this about the world, because you maybe grew up surrounded by honest communicators, then you make all kinds of mistakes on account of your projecting your own mode of thinking onto others. This is vaguely related to the concept of gullibility.
Probably the prevalence of such bug people has always been high. Maybe the primary purpose of religion was to suppress this broken segment of the population, for the betterment of mankind. Broadly enforcing cultural norms via religion also forces those bug people to adopt a different ethos (on a surface level) in order to survive. I dunno, I’m spitballing.
Maybe the primary purpose of religion was to suppress this broken segment of the population, for the betterment of mankind.
Pretty much. Among other things.
This is something that's been stuck in my mental craw and I've been chewing on it for a while.
Strip out the supernatural elements of scripture, and what are you left with? Stories, parables, teachings, philosophy, all geared around the idea of 'this is how you live a functioning life'. It's an answer to a problem people have forgotten about.
And then they get surprised when you rip all of it away you get an absolute mess of a clusterfuck.
Surprise, shit that's been around for over two thousand years at a minimum actually has a purpose! Who knew?
I've reached the point I assume everyone is lying to me except for people I personally know and trust. There's no benefit in telling the truth and all the benefit in manipulative lies.
When I was younger, I had no idea how many people - consciously or otherwise - view language entirely as transactional. They treat all communication as an exercise in extracting benefits from (or causing harm to) other people. There is almost no adherence to principle or truth or reality. It goes beyond mere rational self-interest and into the realm of pathologically dishonest existence.
When you don’t know this about the world, because you maybe grew up surrounded by honest communicators, then you make all kinds of mistakes on account of your projecting your own mode of thinking onto others. This is vaguely related to the concept of gullibility.
Probably the prevalence of such bug people has always been high. Maybe the primary purpose of religion was to suppress this broken segment of the population, for the betterment of mankind. Broadly enforcing cultural norms via religion also forces those bug people to adopt a different ethos (on a surface level) in order to survive. I dunno, I’m spitballing.
Pretty much. Among other things.
This is something that's been stuck in my mental craw and I've been chewing on it for a while.
Strip out the supernatural elements of scripture, and what are you left with? Stories, parables, teachings, philosophy, all geared around the idea of 'this is how you live a functioning life'. It's an answer to a problem people have forgotten about. And then they get surprised when you rip all of it away you get an absolute mess of a clusterfuck.
Surprise, shit that's been around for over two thousand years at a minimum actually has a purpose! Who knew?