Friday, January 27, 2023

Point Out Non-Hypocrisy

If you want to have a living mind instead of joining the herd of NPCs, then one example life-affirming habit is to point out when a public speaker is not hypocritical. Simply assume everything spoken in public is a hypocritical lie, and demonstrate this by pointing out with surprise and pleasure when something is an exception to this rule. 

First, speaking with approval about the outgroup (when they're not lying) detaches you from being a hive-mind adjunct. There's no point in having a brain if all you're using it for is to copy the next brain over. Mirrors are not living beings. 

Second, you focus on the positive instead of getting mad about things you cannot control. Why, you might even learn something!

Third it's just good practice, on both positive and negative. Don't pretend to be surprised when someone is a hypocrite, especially a Democratic politician (or other religious nutjob). Bearing false witness against yourself is self-betrayal. Meanwhile, you practice specifically searching for denials of your hypothesis, rather than confirmations. 

To be explicit, the norm where public speakers are assumed to be speaking in bad faith is plain good sense. It's absolute barking mad lunacy to attribute any trustworthiness at all to a public speaker absent strong evidence to the contrary. Pointing out that this liar is lying is nothing but special pleading; no shit they're lying, do you think I'm an idiot? So is everyone else! Or are we playing explain the obvious? Did you know the Sun rises in the morning? I bet, if you check, you'll find bachelors are unmarried.

Finally, there's an outside chance that you incentivize good behaviour via reward, which is known to be more effective than punishment. What do you suppose would happen in a society where it's normal to thoroughly ignore someone except for the one part they told the truth? Dunamophilic, rather than dunamophobic. 



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