Anyway, I only recently discovered LessWrong and I’m very interested in the concept. It feels like what I’ve been missing from the internet.
The main reason is because I’m critical of everything in a way that does not translate well into any wider community I’ve been a part of. Not that I just try to rain on everybody’s parade on purpose, but on a societal level (extending to smaller social groups) I’m critical of the social makeup of everything. As an example, for many years I was in various progressive queer leftist spaces, both radical and lukewarm. I ended up hating these spaces despite my identity best aligning with them at the time, because of noticing the habits people have that they’re unaware of.
The right is quick to call out leftists for virtue signaling and the oppression olympics, but the left acts like these are just insults. Both are things that exist heavily in those circles (and cause a lot of damage and drama in those communities), but if you point out that tendency, nobody is going to actually think you might have a point. You’re probably just a bigot.
That’s just one example, but it extends to just about any group I could join or have tried to join. I would just end up saying things the designated oppositional group would say (because every group has at least some valid critiques of its opposition). People hate to be criticized. So that distaste would just become directed at me, and then I don’t really feel I belong anymore.
Even here, I wonder just how far this seeking of rationality goes.
Another reason is I’ve always been interested in certain academic fields, mainly psychology and philosophy. But a few things get in the way of delving as deeply into these topics as I would like. I spend a lot of my time in my head over-thinking everything, and then some time trying to get a break from my thoughts, and not much time at all getting external input/knowledge due to attention span issues. I’m hoping being here might motivate me to work on this and get better at bringing new knowledge into my brain, instead of trying to conjure it all myself.
Growing up, I remember pondering the workings and taboos of society more then I remember playing. That isn’t to try and sound like some little genius, I’ve just always been very critical of society and adult answers never satisfied me (honestly, adult answers to very thoughtful children generally suck).
Hello! I’m a person.
Anyway, I only recently discovered LessWrong and I’m very interested in the concept. It feels like what I’ve been missing from the internet.
The main reason is because I’m critical of everything in a way that does not translate well into any wider community I’ve been a part of. Not that I just try to rain on everybody’s parade on purpose, but on a societal level (extending to smaller social groups) I’m critical of the social makeup of everything. As an example, for many years I was in various progressive queer leftist spaces, both radical and lukewarm. I ended up hating these spaces despite my identity best aligning with them at the time, because of noticing the habits people have that they’re unaware of.
The right is quick to call out leftists for virtue signaling and the oppression olympics, but the left acts like these are just insults. Both are things that exist heavily in those circles (and cause a lot of damage and drama in those communities), but if you point out that tendency, nobody is going to actually think you might have a point. You’re probably just a bigot.
That’s just one example, but it extends to just about any group I could join or have tried to join. I would just end up saying things the designated oppositional group would say (because every group has at least some valid critiques of its opposition). People hate to be criticized. So that distaste would just become directed at me, and then I don’t really feel I belong anymore.
Even here, I wonder just how far this seeking of rationality goes.
Another reason is I’ve always been interested in certain academic fields, mainly psychology and philosophy. But a few things get in the way of delving as deeply into these topics as I would like. I spend a lot of my time in my head over-thinking everything, and then some time trying to get a break from my thoughts, and not much time at all getting external input/knowledge due to attention span issues. I’m hoping being here might motivate me to work on this and get better at bringing new knowledge into my brain, instead of trying to conjure it all myself.
Growing up, I remember pondering the workings and taboos of society more then I remember playing. That isn’t to try and sound like some little genius, I’ve just always been very critical of society and adult answers never satisfied me (honestly, adult answers to very thoughtful children generally suck).