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Title: Embrace being proven wrong |
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Category: Blog |
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Date: 2021-11-26 |
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Tags: culture, politics |
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Status: Draft |
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I recently posted an article on my Twitter feed about the shortcomings |
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of Flatpak. It resonated with me and my opinions on a subject that, |
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it turned out, I didn't know enough about. I had conversations with |
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people who were far bigger experts in this area than me, both some in |
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favour of Flatpak, and some sceptical, and came to new conclusions. |
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Don't get me wrong: I'm still not 100% convinced. I still have |
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criticism of Flatpak, as I think anyone can have about anything. |
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But I opted to delete my tweet because I didn't feel comfortable with |
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the hyperbole of the article. Worse even: in some corners of the |
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internet the article had garnered a reputation for "speaking truth to |
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power", feeding into a weird Red Hat conspiracy theory that I felt |
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even more uncomfortable with. |
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## Discourse neurology |
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This style of rhetoric, the "taking apart an argument so I don't have |
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to think about it too hard", has become very common in modern |
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discourse. This is driven by the "fight or flight" response of the |
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amygdala in our brains. A feeling of physical anxiety floods us when |
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we are on the defensive, for whatever reason. And all logic goes out |
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the window. |
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Many of the arguments you see online (and many offline too, don't get |
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me wrong!) center around this emotional response and it is one that |
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our culture fosters as well. |
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Admitting to being wrong is seen as a weakness and connected to shame, |
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a loss of status, and humiliation. And so, we are never wrong. We |
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attack our intellectual oponents in order to relieve ourselves of the |
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responsibility of having to engage with an argument that makes us |
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uncomfortable. This is how filter bubbles get created too. |
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## Hope for the future |
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But that's not how it needs to be. And that's what this blog post is |
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about. |
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Because let's face it: we're all wrong about most things. There are |
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too many things to be known, and too little time to know them all. |
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And because society favours whitty comebacks at surface level |
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discourse, this doesn't change the fact that we are filtering |
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ourselves from properly engaging with arguments that we might find |
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uncomfortable. |
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**There is an antidote however: radical vulnerability and humility.** |
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Being wrong is an opportunity to learn something new and to broaden |
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your perspective on some topic you didn't understand previously. |
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Approach arguments that make you uncomfortable with an open curiocity |
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and you will find yourself agreeing with more things than you |
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previously thought. |
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And this isn't about just changing your opinions either. By engaging |
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more openly with things you disagree with you can actually increase |
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your resolution on ideas that you hold dear. I'd also like to point |
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out that not all ideas are equally valid. Fuck you if you think this |
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justifies debating nazis... |
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Ultimately I want to approach life with a curiocity that doesn't |
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exclude me from new and exciting things that may be happening in the |
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communities I'm in, or from ignoring uncomfortable truths about how |
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the system we are forced to live in works. |
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And maybe, if enough of us do this, we can make this world just a |
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little bit better too. |
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