epistemic status: I’m more thinking out loud. I tried to put in a lot of “I think” and “perhaps” and question marks, but if I sound very confident in my phrasing, re-word it as more speculative.
I think this has a lot of truth behind it, but also I think it espouses a too all-encompassing view on the subject and wraps being true to yourself in a not-useful cloak of “seeking truths about reality”.
If you honestly seek truth, and if you decide to tell the truth, at some point, you will accept to appear cringe to the eyes of most people.
To more accurately support what I think you mean based upon the rest of your post, I think this could be more accurately stated:
“If you honestly seek truth, and if you decide to tell 100% of the truth you’ve found, and if you decide to tell 100% of the truth you’ve found to anyone you can, to become the leader of truth-tellers, to make telling the truth your reason for existence, to make Telling All Of The Truths your livelihood, then you will appear cringe to the eyes of most people”.
While true, it does not seem likely to me that this is a useful ideal to aspire to.
It seems likely to me that for most people, most of the time, a better ideal to aspire to is: you can honestly seek truth and yet decide to tell the truth judiciously, selectively (without a requirement of lies!) and thus appear non-cringeworthy to most people. (Probably cringe to some small subset.)
I think your definition of “reality” conveniently excludes the society we are embedded within, but the society we are embedded within is perhaps the most important part of the reality we need to navigate and influence to meet our goals.
Unfortunately, it seems like much of the rest of your points are built on this foundation.
I agree that when seeking truth you shouldn’t worry about what would happen if you said them aloud, but from the context...it does not seem that is actually the point of this post? It seems like the point of this post is more accurately captured in this re-phrased sentence:
“When speaking truth, you shouldn’t worry about if the truths you are revealing will be laughed at.”
As described above I do not think this is absolutely true.
You wouldn’t be like a swordsman who keeps glancing away to see if anyone might be laughing at him, you’d be like a swordsman weighing which stance to take. And/or building the muscle memory to let the correct stances and moves to “flow”. (Or something like that...I’m not a swordsman!)
There isn’t a swordsman here, and his opponent there, and other people over there...the other people and the opponent are all one.
Now, I would not argue that people should keep their mouths shut about things just to avoid appearing cringe. Maybe being weeaboo and posting it on the internet is just what you require for happiness. If so, get out and do that shit! However, be aware that you’re trading one useful thing for another useful thing and, unfortunately, sometimes you can’t have both useful things.
Acceptance and influence in society is not the be-all and end-all of goal fulfillment.
I’ve thought about your comment, and I think you are basically correct about everything, but my personal experience differs on how easy it is to actually hide the truths you know (either about yourself or the external world).
“If you honestly seek truth, and if you decide to tell 100% of the truth you’ve found, and if you decide to tell 100% of the truth you’ve found to anyone you can, to become the leader of truth-tellers, to make telling the truth your reason for existence, to make Telling All Of The Truths your livelihood, then you will appear cringe to the eyes of most people”.
From this paragraphs it seems like you make the case that you could say and do 90% of what you want to say and do and get away with it (remember that truth doesn’t only influence what you say, but also what you do, and that might be very difficult to hide). In my experience it was more like 20%. I guess it varies depending on who you are and the social context you are in.
It seems likely to me that for most people, most of the time, a better ideal to aspire to is: you can honestly seek truth and yet decide to tell the truth judiciously, selectively (without a requirement of lies!) and thus appear non-cringeworthy to most people. (Probably cringe to some small subset.)
I feel like that this applies to those truths that are absolutely impossible to say without alienating everyone. In real life you can get away with everything else by just being confident (I believe this with more or less 70% probability).
I think your definition of “reality” conveniently excludes the society we are embedded within, but the society we are embedded within is perhaps the most important part of the reality we need to navigate and influence to meet our goals.
I actually didn’t want to define reality in this way. The distinction social reality vs. the rest of reality is useful in this context but clearly social reality is reality. I don’t know if social reality is “the most important part” (for some people it surely is, I don’t think it is for me), but it is definitely something that has value and factors in decisions. I may have been too extreme in my script and gave the wrong impression on a few points. My script wring skills have margin of improvement.
“When speaking truth, you shouldn’t worry about if the truths you are revealing will be laughed at.”
As described above I do not think this is absolutely true.
You wouldn’t be like a swordsman who keeps glancing away to see if anyone might be laughing at him, you’d be like a swordsman weighing which stance to take. And/or building the muscle memory to let the correct stances and moves to “flow”. (Or something like that...I’m not a swordsman!)
You are definitely correct here. It is not absolutely true. I think I have made the mistake of generalizing my experience too much.
From this paragraphs it seems like you make the case that you could say and do 90% of what you want to say
Hmm. I think this highlights a key point. The word “want” is doing a lot of work here. I’m not sure I think you usually shouldn’t say what you want to say (unless you have some pathological version of want).
I believe things to be true about the world and myself that many people would probably, at minimum, disagree with, maybe even cause me social harm. The phrase “want to say” doesn’t capture my feelings about some portion of these things I believe. I’d be glad to share these thoughts if I thought others (or myself) would benefit from the sharing, but I do not have any want that would be satiated by telling people these thoughts.
That might not be a universal way of feeling, but I think what is universal is that by sharing cringey things, you are trading one good for another. That trade may or may not be a net gain for you. Not a thing I can judge!
epistemic status: I’m more thinking out loud. I tried to put in a lot of “I think” and “perhaps” and question marks, but if I sound very confident in my phrasing, re-word it as more speculative.
I think this has a lot of truth behind it, but also I think it espouses a too all-encompassing view on the subject and wraps being true to yourself in a not-useful cloak of “seeking truths about reality”.
To more accurately support what I think you mean based upon the rest of your post, I think this could be more accurately stated:
“If you honestly seek truth, and if you decide to tell 100% of the truth you’ve found, and if you decide to tell 100% of the truth you’ve found to anyone you can, to become the leader of truth-tellers, to make telling the truth your reason for existence, to make Telling All Of The Truths your livelihood, then you will appear cringe to the eyes of most people”.
While true, it does not seem likely to me that this is a useful ideal to aspire to.
It seems likely to me that for most people, most of the time, a better ideal to aspire to is: you can honestly seek truth and yet decide to tell the truth judiciously, selectively (without a requirement of lies!) and thus appear non-cringeworthy to most people. (Probably cringe to some small subset.)
I think your definition of “reality” conveniently excludes the society we are embedded within, but the society we are embedded within is perhaps the most important part of the reality we need to navigate and influence to meet our goals.
Unfortunately, it seems like much of the rest of your points are built on this foundation.
I agree that when seeking truth you shouldn’t worry about what would happen if you said them aloud, but from the context...it does not seem that is actually the point of this post? It seems like the point of this post is more accurately captured in this re-phrased sentence:
“When speaking truth, you shouldn’t worry about if the truths you are revealing will be laughed at.”
As described above I do not think this is absolutely true.
You wouldn’t be like a swordsman who keeps glancing away to see if anyone might be laughing at him, you’d be like a swordsman weighing which stance to take. And/or building the muscle memory to let the correct stances and moves to “flow”. (Or something like that...I’m not a swordsman!)
There isn’t a swordsman here, and his opponent there, and other people over there...the other people and the opponent are all one.
Now, I would not argue that people should keep their mouths shut about things just to avoid appearing cringe. Maybe being weeaboo and posting it on the internet is just what you require for happiness. If so, get out and do that shit! However, be aware that you’re trading one useful thing for another useful thing and, unfortunately, sometimes you can’t have both useful things.
Acceptance and influence in society is not the be-all and end-all of goal fulfillment.
But it’s also not nothing.
I’ve thought about your comment, and I think you are basically correct about everything, but my personal experience differs on how easy it is to actually hide the truths you know (either about yourself or the external world).
From this paragraphs it seems like you make the case that you could say and do 90% of what you want to say and do and get away with it (remember that truth doesn’t only influence what you say, but also what you do, and that might be very difficult to hide). In my experience it was more like 20%. I guess it varies depending on who you are and the social context you are in.
I feel like that this applies to those truths that are absolutely impossible to say without alienating everyone. In real life you can get away with everything else by just being confident (I believe this with more or less 70% probability).
I actually didn’t want to define reality in this way. The distinction social reality vs. the rest of reality is useful in this context but clearly social reality is reality. I don’t know if social reality is “the most important part” (for some people it surely is, I don’t think it is for me), but it is definitely something that has value and factors in decisions. I may have been too extreme in my script and gave the wrong impression on a few points. My script wring skills have margin of improvement.
You are definitely correct here. It is not absolutely true. I think I have made the mistake of generalizing my experience too much.
Hmm. I think this highlights a key point. The word “want” is doing a lot of work here. I’m not sure I think you usually shouldn’t say what you want to say (unless you have some pathological version of want).
I believe things to be true about the world and myself that many people would probably, at minimum, disagree with, maybe even cause me social harm. The phrase “want to say” doesn’t capture my feelings about some portion of these things I believe. I’d be glad to share these thoughts if I thought others (or myself) would benefit from the sharing, but I do not have any want that would be satiated by telling people these thoughts.
That might not be a universal way of feeling, but I think what is universal is that by sharing cringey things, you are trading one good for another. That trade may or may not be a net gain for you. Not a thing I can judge!