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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Great questions! I hope I can jump in without being too short.

    I wonder if something like debatemap.app or kialo-edu.com would offer a better UX (“user experience”) than Lemmy. I’ve also heard that substack.com has done a good job of attracting high-quality discussion (but I worry, what’s stopping them from traveling down the enshittification path like all the rest?)

    OTOH, I think online discussion itself has some weaknesses that can’t be easily overcome–perhaps in-person, local discussion is (usually/almost always?) better. For example, one study indicates that engaging in political discourse with people online leads to an “uncivil comment rate” of 10%, while a “mixed political / non-political” discourse has a lower uncivil comment rate [1].

    Personally, I find it to be generally true that I need to trust someone in one or more non-controversial areas of life before I take their controversial (to me) opinions seriously. Simple time and familiarity also helps.

    [1] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/political-science/articles/10.3389/fpos.2021.741605/full









  • Have you ever heard the story of the snake?

    One evening, a man walks along a dimly lit path. He suddenly halts, his heart pounding with fear. Before him, on the ground, lies what appears to be a venomous snake. He freezes, paralyzed with dread. Only when a friend comes by with a lantern does the true nature of the object come to light: it is merely a piece of rope.

    I learned this story from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist author. He would indicate with stories like this that our perceptions shape our reality. Often, we react out of fear and misunderstanding, seeing snakes where there are none. He said that mindfulness and deeper understanding can act like the lantern, illuminating the true nature of our experiences.


  • You’re not alone in feeling like you bear the weight alone. I mean, with all you’re doing, you’re basically a church-on-wheels here. And I say that both as a compliment and as a reflection of our situation as a society–we need each other, we need neighbors, community, and we need help sometimes. And many people are feeling the “it’s too much to do alone” conclusion. I don’t think we were meant to be this way. I’ve been reading Seth Kaplan’s “Fragile Neighborhoods” recently and I feel like my eyes are open to the deep loss in social capital or “collective efficacy” that previous generations had. We’re in a period of innovating on new social structures. It’s tough. Keep going. Play the long game, make friends and neighbors, and don’t forget you’re just human too. We need each other.




  • I wonder if it would help to think back to the first time you littered? When I was 5 or 6, I remember eating a candy and not wanting the wrapper any more. It had to be someone else who saw what I did and pointed out that it isn’t good if we all did this, because then the playground would be all full of trash and we couldn’t play there. I was like, “Oh, I get it.” But if someone hadn’t explained it to me, I think the behavior could have innocently continued for quite some time. I grew up in a very rural place (northern Canada).