In Paul Fussell’s book on class (I think), he says that people are really worried about differentiating themselves from the class immediately below them, but largely ignorant of the customs and sometimes even existence of the classes above them. When I found SSC, and then The Motte, and stuff like TLP, I was astonished to find a tier of the internet I had had no idea even existed. The quality of discourse here is . . . usually . . . of the kind that “high brow” (by internet standards) websites THINK they are having, but when you see the best stuff here you realize that those clowns are just flattering themselves. My question is, who is rightly saying the same thing about us? Of what intellectual internet class am I ignorant now? Or does onlineness impose some kind of ceiling on things, and the real galaxy brains are at the equivalent of Davos somewhere?
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Can you please clarify what you meant by this? What is a 'real word' in this line of thought?
Sorry for not replying, got lost in the real world with its real words.
The main idea is whether or not they are using sentences and thoughts that they themselves derived, or copied from other people. You can also look at whether or not the intention of the communication is to Win the Conversation, or communicate clearly in order to interface better with reality. Sometimes it can be very scary to notice how few people in certain communities actually create new thoughts. How many people are deciding what is true or not? One of the things that make us so adaptable to different environments is probably the fact that the main human algorithm running in groups doesn't interface with these environments directly.
The reason why I mentioned age is because I do not think most people start out this way as children, having worked with kids a lot, it constantly surprised me how much more real that the thoughts of children can be. They were almost always wrong (bcuz kidz r dum), but they usually contained a certain real insight that adults who play The Game lack. I'm not sure if it's a physical process of growing up (lack of neuroplasticity maybe?), or if it gets beaten out of people.
I really tried to explain it the best I could but I feel it's still not very clear. I do however not have more time so hopefully it us good enough.
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