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I had to walk away from all of the crap in the information ecology of the internet during and after the election. One of the reasons was because I didn't want to make public displays of rage and assholery in a place (here) were I come for some participatory (I swear, I hate to use the word) "intellectual" stimulation. (God that sounds horrible.)

One of the repercussions is a couple of months getting out of the habit of putting a few paragraphs together that often help me make some sense out of things that I've been reading or tying together ideas from varied sources that I'm trying to integrate. What I discovered is that I need to write a bit in order think. Another thing I discovered is that it's harder to rebuild an almost easily established virtuous habit than it it is to lose one.

I feel like that latter discovery might apply also to where we are in current events. But I'm not sure how.

govols 8 Jan 14
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0

Tracy Cole has a section where she speaks her mind and not offend too much... maybe start post one there?

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I think better when I am engaged with someone else, usually talk. But active debate here works almost as well.

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As Trump exposed the darker side of our institutions and the population in general it would be easy to become more insular in the face of the rot and incompetence. What you have to keep in mind it was always there. The difference is it was not as immediate. In the past people would read the fake news throw it in the trash and go on about their lives. Similarly friends and relatives were an occasional experience and small differences in outlook would only occasionally be an irritant. The aply named social media platform Facebook illustrates how now differences are constantly in your face. Separation makes the heart grow fonder or at least the irritation manageable.

The people that our complaining about echo chambers really mean those who don't agree with me should be silent. The most extensive network of suppression ever implemented was in the Soviet Union and it collapsed because of echo chambers of discontent. No amount of censorship or propaganda can prop up an unpopular establishment. It was true before the internet and it is true now. People that need a vacation from the Internet or those who push censorship are just not using it right.

There is nothing wrong with echo chambers. Every highly specialized field such as physics is a members only echo chamber. For any reasonable conversation there has to be shared knowledge, agreement on basic principles, a discussing not a debating form of interaction and a degree of openness. Dogma is the enemy of reason and we are awash in it. Dogma is now celebrated as virtuous and that is killing intellectual curiosity. The secular religion of wokeness and it's dogma being exhibit A.

Yes.
Weird thing is, he wasn't exposing it to me. I was already awake to a hell of a lot of it. What was pissing me off as it was being revealed to more and more people was how they were doubling down on the methods. And it worked, still.

@govols

I had not finished lol

@wolfhnd I never can tell....

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It's harder to rebuild a virtuous habit, like speaking respectfully with people who disagree with you in a disrespectful manner (provided you ever had that habit to begin with) than it is to lose that habit, maybe where you're going?

We have people in the world who don't wish to speak respectfully with those who have differing points of view and that trend is continuing with identity politics and crackdowns on what is 'allowed' speech and what isn't.

Maybe? Maybe you're fed up with the crap and don't want to play 'nice' anymore? Just a thought.

Another reason I hade to step out is that I know how easy bad practices get habituated, and how hard those habits are to break. I've NOT posted more half written posts and comments in the last two months than the whole of participating in forums such as these.

And yes, you're reading along the lines I was thinking.

@govols Well, my philosophy on that is: the less we speak out because we don't feel we can make a good case, the more 'they' win. Of course, speaking out and making a bad case isn't all that great, but at the same time, at least someone making a bad case tried. Silence is what the goons want to force and frighten us into. Someone said something like "Evil wins when good men do nothing." Even though I put it in quotes, it's far from an exact quote.

I think you do a pretty good job of expressing your views, for whatever that's worth to you.

@jamesdomus1861

One of the reason I kept starting and rejecting so many posts was because I KNOW it helps to know you're not alone. I actually felt bad in stepping out because we all need that I we really do need to do our part in preserving the sanity of like-minded people under psychological assault. This whole thing of deleting people and viewpoints is very much akin to spousal abuse. Such relationships, AND social isolation, is soul-crushing.

@govols Fortunately, I've always been a loner and alone, so this isolation hasn't bothered me a bit.

God put me here for a reason. If that reason is to be a comfort to others, then so be it. We ARE in this together, despite what those who would tear like minded individuals apart, want.

@govols I enjoy being by myself - seldom do I consider myself lonely, vey seldom. But I do need outlets for what's in my head and therefore I write.

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