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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2674 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 6, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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This all seems really dumb to me: we spend all this time and energy learning as children (and as parents teaching our own children) how to problem solve, practice mutual respect, agree to disagree, and form amicable relationship, but then adults throw that shit completely out the window when it comes to politics.

Why is that?

A lot of politics is literal life-or-death issues. If you ban an important medical procedure, people die. If you invite a bunch of criminals into small communities, the murder rate goes up, and people die.

Safer political stances still tie into this - taxes go up, families are poorer, now the kids don't get enough to eat. Or taxes go down, social services collapse, and now getting laid off is a death sentence.

Even the safest political stance still gets into tribalism - you support X, which "everyone knows" is aligned with our political enemies, so clearly you also support all of their other political stances.

but then adults throw that shit completely out the window when it comes to politics.

Couple of reasons - first politics are identity lately. Second there are basic disagreements and there is no external pressure that will actually put the culture war sides on the negotiating table even grudgingly. There is no respect and no one is willing to earn the other side's respect - so agree to disagree and amicable relationships are just not possible.

“We” (elementary school teachers, really) teach them those things in hopes they’ll have fewer fights to break up or tantrums to subdue, not because they’re effective strategies

Because people are very good at trying to get others to follow norms, but terrible at following the norms themselves. It's kind of like how it's easy to plan a healthy diet for someone else, but hard to eat that way yourself. It's also worth pointing out that there are plenty of adults who do act the way we teach kids how to act. It's a subset (however large) of bad actors who are ruining things for everyone.

It's also worth pointing out that there are plenty of adults who do act the way we teach kids how to act.

So then lets platform those people and not anyone else.

This is why I bring my political commentary here, and not shouting into juvenile name-slinging fora like Twitter or most of Reddit.

I'm doing my part.

Because it's all wishful thinking. It's not working for the kids either, regardless of how much propaganda we feed them.

That sounds rather apathetic.

Maybe? I don't see teaching soft skills to have much effect. Leading by example, yes, but teaching-learning them seems to me like so much fruitless effort.

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