There's definitely been times I've been arguing with someone and got the distinct impression they were 14.
And while part of me misses the "old Inter-Net", the other part of me knows that a lot of those guys provided the intellectual cover for things to get to where they are today. Bunch of academics and high IQ techies whose only interactions with any minority group (gays, blacks, foreigners, etc...) was the high IQ (and usually English-speaking) segment of said group. And who thought that "progress" can only occur when the older generations die off and the best thing "old people" could do was get out of the way of new ideas from the young.
It is disheartening to realize how many people were copying smart opinions because they were trendy (within certain crowds), rather than convergent realization.
I think the opposite is more true: the smart people defended the ideas that supported the "stupid" actions which were also supported by those same ideas but in a "dumber" way.
See also: the classic George Carlin "I understand what you're trying to do, but you're doing it all wrong!" brand of "comedy".
Then liberal ideas of "democracy" and "will of the people" disabled that part of the back of our brain which told us "well if this is how 'stupid' people are implementing our ideas, perhaps we should prevent the 'stupid' people from doing so lest they fuck it all up."
There's definitely been times I've been arguing with someone and got the distinct impression they were 14.
And while part of me misses the "old Inter-Net", the other part of me knows that a lot of those guys provided the intellectual cover for things to get to where they are today. Bunch of academics and high IQ techies whose only interactions with any minority group (gays, blacks, foreigners, etc...) was the high IQ (and usually English-speaking) segment of said group. And who thought that "progress" can only occur when the older generations die off and the best thing "old people" could do was get out of the way of new ideas from the young.
I'd wager a lot of the people who 20 years ago were calling the ban of master/slave terminology "dumb" on slashdot support the modern bans on the terms for "inclusivity" reasons.
It is disheartening to realize how many people were copying smart opinions because they were trendy (within certain crowds), rather than convergent realization.
I think the opposite is more true: the smart people defended the ideas that supported the "stupid" actions which were also supported by those same ideas but in a "dumber" way.
See also: the classic George Carlin "I understand what you're trying to do, but you're doing it all wrong!" brand of "comedy".
Then liberal ideas of "democracy" and "will of the people" disabled that part of the back of our brain which told us "well if this is how 'stupid' people are implementing our ideas, perhaps we should prevent the 'stupid' people from doing so lest they fuck it all up."