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Astral Codex Ten: A Columbian Exchange

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Scott wades into the Culture War again with a delightfully dorky dialogue about Columbus Day. Contains lots of references to the other other Scott.

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For me, its the fact that they love to tear down long-held and 'cherished' traditions and holidays (which amounts to "any that is more than like 3 decades old") and relish in mocking the reaction to it, whilst also claiming they have no ill intent and its not really a 'loss' since its just a hokey corporate contrivance anyway and nobody should actually miss it why is there such a big fuss?

Its this simultaneous recognition that something is sacred and meaningful to [group], and yet the pretense that [group] is completely unreasonable and indeed immoral to try and combat the changes to or elimination of their traditions because things will surely be better now, and why cling to the past to your own detriment?

They want to invoke a certain amount of nihilism whilst tearing down sacred cows, but they aren't actually dispassionate about it. And yet they mock the passions of those they antagonize.