Yeah, sure, just… he ain’t building much of a reputation in the groups that could benefit and update the most from his arguments, between that and the coat and the shaved head.
More or less the same complaint about optimizing your appearance can be levied at the wikipedia editors. In any case when I see someone has invested some effort into how they look, I try not to be too judgemental about the tribal attire of his particular subculture.
I’d argue that by mainstream standards many well respected LWers dress rather oddly. Not many of them manage to do so and look cool in a particular subculture though (which aurini definitely manages).
“Lol, a bonehead thinks he can say big words.”
Well its good that you’ve gotten over this. Stereotypes do carry real information, but don’t take them too seriously. For example Konkvistador’s comment is up voted enough that it should swamp any effect from the clothing if you trust the average LessWronger.
And 4chan ain’t mean to its ingroup; it has often been pretty fucking cuddly to me.
I did not have the average LessWronger in mind; I’m sure they/we have no problem with that, as I am a below average LWer. I’m thinking of a generally soft-hearted, liberally-minded guy on Reddit—or, yes, 4chan—who could, whatever he ends up updating to, find it useful to look at the people and ideas that he finds unfashionable and distasteful, and see how they’re human too, and not even the big horrible threat to his lifestyle and freedoms he feels them to be. I was a lot like that guy once, I thought the same things, and I’m confident that I’m a decent source on his perspective.
Yo, Charlie, if ever you need to wedge open the mind of a decent but tribally Right-hating guy like the one I described here, link this classic article by Orwell at them. Well, to me, anything by Orwell is a classic, but this one’s seriously kickass, paying real and sincere respect to one’s opponent while still attacking most of his values and beliefs (but also pointing out the considerable hypocrisy and moral cowardice of most people who slammed him merely out of fashion). Who said that the Left can’t do it… - well, sigh, we mostly can’t - …don’t know it’s possible?
Just, I’d exercise judgment in which of the thinkers you support to compare to Kipling in this way, you understand? Someone like Aurini, explicitly sharing basic priors, like reductionism and the value of human rights and an ordered society, is far less alien to our Hypothetical Left-Identifying Guy than Kipling was to Orwell’s circles.
On the other hand, if said guy, like me, will first try to see if there’s anything thoughtlessly hateful that fits his stereotype of the Right in the vicinity of whatever caught his eye—don’t waste the analogy on defending a really sadistic/retarded/etc thing said by someone on “your” side (hint: my link fucking counts, nigga!). Point out all the things that the Guy already believes stupid or worse (like supporting the USSR or making the iconoclastic hero that was MLK the lifeless object of America’s state cult) that “his” side has done over the years, then remind him of the need to evaluate every cluster of thought by the best ideas present in it, not the below-mainstream people latching on to it.
More or less the same complaint about optimizing your appearance can be levied at the wikipedia editors. In any case when I see someone has invested some effort into how they look, I try not to be too judgemental about the tribal attire of his particular subculture.
I’d argue that by mainstream standards many well respected LWers dress rather oddly. Not many of them manage to do so and look cool in a particular subculture though (which aurini definitely manages).
Well its good that you’ve gotten over this. Stereotypes do carry real information, but don’t take them too seriously. For example Konkvistador’s comment is up voted enough that it should swamp any effect from the clothing if you trust the average LessWronger.
Oldfag.
I did not have the average LessWronger in mind; I’m sure they/we have no problem with that, as I am a below average LWer. I’m thinking of a generally soft-hearted, liberally-minded guy on Reddit—or, yes, 4chan—who could, whatever he ends up updating to, find it useful to look at the people and ideas that he finds unfashionable and distasteful, and see how they’re human too, and not even the big horrible threat to his lifestyle and freedoms he feels them to be. I was a lot like that guy once, I thought the same things, and I’m confident that I’m a decent source on his perspective.
Yo, Charlie, if ever you need to wedge open the mind of a decent but tribally Right-hating guy like the one I described here, link this classic article by Orwell at them. Well, to me, anything by Orwell is a classic, but this one’s seriously kickass, paying real and sincere respect to one’s opponent while still attacking most of his values and beliefs (but also pointing out the considerable hypocrisy and moral cowardice of most people who slammed him merely out of fashion). Who said that the Left can’t do it… - well, sigh, we mostly can’t - …don’t know it’s possible?
Just, I’d exercise judgment in which of the thinkers you support to compare to Kipling in this way, you understand? Someone like Aurini, explicitly sharing basic priors, like reductionism and the value of human rights and an ordered society, is far less alien to our Hypothetical Left-Identifying Guy than Kipling was to Orwell’s circles.
On the other hand, if said guy, like me, will first try to see if there’s anything thoughtlessly hateful that fits his stereotype of the Right in the vicinity of whatever caught his eye—don’t waste the analogy on defending a really sadistic/retarded/etc thing said by someone on “your” side (hint: my link fucking counts, nigga!). Point out all the things that the Guy already believes stupid or worse (like supporting the USSR or making the iconoclastic hero that was MLK the lifeless object of America’s state cult) that “his” side has done over the years, then remind him of the need to evaluate every cluster of thought by the best ideas present in it, not the below-mainstream people latching on to it.
Upvoted for linking to an essay by Orwell, I hadn’t read that particular one before.