There is was a saying around Northeastern University people in my time. MIT produces scientists. Northeastern produces engineers. Thus, I make no claim to be a scientist. Yet both groups when frequently dealing with computers, software and digital hardware develop digitalitis. They learn to deal with stuff that is causal in the extreme. If the equipment does not behave predictably, casually, as designed, it is the fault of the creator of the equipment or writer of the software. The digital world is just causal.spottybrowncow wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 4:54 pmMany on this forum are trained in disciplines requiring scientific rigor, and we know how to reason. You don't. When people don't reply to you, it isn't because "you've got them," i.e., they can't refute your points. It's just that they've given up on you. But I'll hand it to you, you're like the energizer bunny. If only you'd been born several decades earlier you could have been Che Guevara's right hand man. Lots of passion, little reason.
And such engineers and scientists sometimes treat people the same way. In terms of dealing with the equipment, digital is just how things work. The problem comes when they treat people the same way. Having a touch of digitalitis, the problem is emphatically not with misunderstanding causality, but with expecting people to behave the same way.
They don’t. In politics, this is emphasized. You get my understanding of causality backwards, or claim that I don’t know who my father is. John supports Trump by saying that no one can support Trump due to censorship. People can and do make all sorts of absurd claims without basis in reality. When called on it, they go silent instead of defending their absurd claims.
Know how to reason? Scientific rigor? That’s news to me. What I see is putting one’s world view above reality and fact, making up lies and falsehood to defend an obviously incorrect theory.
I’d add that Communism’s fault is that in the Party they create a new class of elites that is put ahead of the people. Thus, Communism has generally failed. The Republicans have the elites and the white supremacists, two groups they put ahead of the people. These are flaws the majority of the people are ready to get rid of.
There is much honorable in conservative thought. I can see rural folk not being aware of urban problems, and not wanting to pay for them while using products produced in urban and suburban environments. I can see in less populate regions you want to be independent and self reliant, not as much into teamwork and specialization as the urban people are. These are problems of not understating, of thinking what is best in one environment is best for all.
But the Agricultural Age was one of seeking and achieving superiority over others. The flaws that result from too much tribal thinking are there. Yes, there are too many cultures that include a sense of superiority, racism, prejudice, oppression, violence. As exaggerated in John’s cartoon, you build a wall between yourself and the people, top it with barbed wire, and enjoy one’s swimming pool. There are times when enough is considered enough.
They are called crises.