This article has an interesting intersection with one of LW’s other favorite topics: autism. Because autism (especially the high-functional, hyperverbal type common round these parts) is fairly described as an impairment in purely imitative learning, leading to an over-reliance on explicit verbal instruction...
which frequently leads to getting it wrong, especially in domains in which the explicit verbal instructions are lacking or in conflict with empirically observed behaviors. Your example of “everyone says you should obey the government while actually subverting it” is a good example of what seems to happen to high-functioning autists with respect to social rules, for example.
Most people talk a lot about how they hate hypocrites. Hypocrites say you’re supposed to do one thing, and then they do another, and people don’t like that. I can understand admitting that it is hard to live in accordance with your stated standards, but people shouldn’t lie that they believe there is anything plausibly contextually good about a standard when they don’t actually believe there is anything plausibly contextually good about the standard. Otherwise you can’t hold people accountable to the standards that both of you say you think have something maybe-good about them.
Of course, there is an important distinction between lying and simulacrum level 3, wherein everyone understands the situation. People who aren’t in on the simulacrum level 3 shouldn’t be punished for wanting to understand the inconsistency. Once the inconsistency is explained, there is no problem. The explanation should be open for everyone to see, so as not to discriminate against those who still don’t know. I don’t think it’s autistic to be unaware of the reasons for every weird inconsistency between word and action, and it’s definitely not autistic to ask about them.
No one is simulacrum-3-omniscient, and everyone is born with very little knowledge of simulacrum 3 situations. It would be poorly calibrated to expect a consistent flow of uninterrupted simulacrum 3 stability given how little most people know.
I don’t think I disagree with this, except to note that it’s rarely the case that social standards are explicitly, consciously hypocritical. More often, people simply don’t notice the conflict between stated and actual standards.
Where I differ from many people is that, in case of a conflict between actual and stated standards of behavior, the correct thing to do is to endorse and formalize the actual standard, rather than trying to enforce the stated standard. This is because the stated standard, by virtue of never having actually been put into practice, is frequently insane if you try to actually practice it.
I don’t take it for granted that saying something very beautiful but doing something contradictorily ugly and cynicism-inducing is less insane, nor, if it is necessarily sane, do I take it for granted that sanity is the thing we should be striving for in that case.
This article has an interesting intersection with one of LW’s other favorite topics: autism. Because autism (especially the high-functional, hyperverbal type common round these parts) is fairly described as an impairment in purely imitative learning, leading to an over-reliance on explicit verbal instruction...
which frequently leads to getting it wrong, especially in domains in which the explicit verbal instructions are lacking or in conflict with empirically observed behaviors. Your example of “everyone says you should obey the government while actually subverting it” is a good example of what seems to happen to high-functioning autists with respect to social rules, for example.
I haven’t heard this description before. I like it.
Most people talk a lot about how they hate hypocrites. Hypocrites say you’re supposed to do one thing, and then they do another, and people don’t like that. I can understand admitting that it is hard to live in accordance with your stated standards, but people shouldn’t lie that they believe there is anything plausibly contextually good about a standard when they don’t actually believe there is anything plausibly contextually good about the standard. Otherwise you can’t hold people accountable to the standards that both of you say you think have something maybe-good about them.
Of course, there is an important distinction between lying and simulacrum level 3, wherein everyone understands the situation. People who aren’t in on the simulacrum level 3 shouldn’t be punished for wanting to understand the inconsistency. Once the inconsistency is explained, there is no problem. The explanation should be open for everyone to see, so as not to discriminate against those who still don’t know. I don’t think it’s autistic to be unaware of the reasons for every weird inconsistency between word and action, and it’s definitely not autistic to ask about them.
No one is simulacrum-3-omniscient, and everyone is born with very little knowledge of simulacrum 3 situations. It would be poorly calibrated to expect a consistent flow of uninterrupted simulacrum 3 stability given how little most people know.
I don’t think I disagree with this, except to note that it’s rarely the case that social standards are explicitly, consciously hypocritical. More often, people simply don’t notice the conflict between stated and actual standards.
Where I differ from many people is that, in case of a conflict between actual and stated standards of behavior, the correct thing to do is to endorse and formalize the actual standard, rather than trying to enforce the stated standard. This is because the stated standard, by virtue of never having actually been put into practice, is frequently insane if you try to actually practice it.
I don’t take it for granted that saying something very beautiful but doing something contradictorily ugly and cynicism-inducing is less insane, nor, if it is necessarily sane, do I take it for granted that sanity is the thing we should be striving for in that case.