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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   31336 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023

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I simply do not believe that the overall utility of society is increased by these actions, nor the individual utilities of the people involved.

That's not what "pro-social" means, though. Pro-social simply meaning that it's reinforcing the social structure. No different than literal hen-pecking. It's a horrible social structure, of course.

Pro-social simply meaning that it's reinforcing the social structure.

What structure is there to reinforce? It is an anarchic free-for-all where any event can - based on the derangements of the day* - serve as punishment or a chance for anyone who wants to hurt people to indulge themselves.

That's all.

* See the Latino man fired for the "white supremacist 'OK' hand-sign at the height of derangement over Floyd.

The structure is people at the top hold out a few jobs that pay well enough to live above all this as a reward to those who create the most value for them.

Then they turn their shock troops (those with nothing to lose) out upon the masses as the stick incentivize them to compete for one of those coveted positions in the highest levels of the low to avoid them) and if anyone with something to lose fights back against these shock troops they get their life and reputation ruined with at best a long, expensive trial and aquittal that leaves them hated and presumed guilty and thus effectively unemployable by half the nation.

I'd say that's the non-standard definition, where the definition I'm using is "Promoting social good and the welfare of the members of a given society."

Not sure why this implies enforcement or reinforcement of a particular social structures, since in my definition social structures can, in fact, be anti-social.

Social structures cannot be anti-social; you're just trying to equate "pro-social" and "good", which doesn't work because society often sucks.

Society often sucks.

Being 'pro-social' means helping it suck less.

I am genuinely certain that this is the most common definition in use by most people when using these terms.

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