If you skip the introduction and don’t watch the Q&A afterwards, the presentation is just under an hour. A very good watch, IMO. Interested in what people think.
Eh, first of all I’m not American so I have very little insight into the day to day on American campus. But I am from a “woke” nation in the form of Sweden.
The three “untruths”, god damn I hate when authors write like that, are:
The Untruth of Fragility: "What doesn't kill you makes you weaker."
The Untruth of Emotional Reasoning: "Always trust your feelings."
The Untruth of Us vs. Them: "Life is a battle between good people and evil people."
And they’re just so basic and completely miss the point in the case of number two. In fact I’d argue the issue now a days is that we disregard feelings too much. Not from a reasoning standpoint but from the standpoint of what is “true” to me, personal morals etc. People try so hard to reason their way out of situations you need to emotion your way out of. Like relationship troubles.
For “Us vs Them” all I can garner from what they write is that they think we should listen to bigots because there might be merit in their reasoning. And that standpoint is about the most insidious shit there is. While I agree that silent treatment ignoring sentiments like that isn’t very good or effective, it’s even worse to engage in proper debate when one side doesn’t argue in good faith. Don’t wrestle pigs and all that. The best way is to kill the debate the instant intolerable shit is spewed and explain that those viewpoints are unacceptable and intolerable. We can’t tolerate intolerance to death. All it ever will do is make it seem acceptable when it isn’t.
That leaves us with the fragility untruth. And here I see at least some merit. The extreme levels of fear in society in general (when we’re by most metrics safer than ever) spewed on by media and news in all forms is making parents safeguard their kids from life. Ultimately leading to kids missing out of a ton of self-exploration and learning from mistakes. We’re also far to harsh on kids doing and saying dumb shit, while being to tolerant of adults. When kids say racist shit they need to be taught that isn’t OK and why. When adults to it they need to be told in no uncertain terms that their behavior is unacceptable and they’re not welcome until they change. Today we see far to often people writing of kids as unfixable when they’re 13 like they themselves weren’t shit stains at that age.
And they’re just so basic and completely miss the point in the case of number two. In fact I’d argue the issue now a days is that we disregard feelings too much. Not from a reasoning standpoint but from the standpoint of what is “true” to me, personal morals etc. People try so hard to reason their way out of situations you need to emotion your way out of. Like relationship troubles.
As a mental health provider, I have to seriously disagree with you here. Emotions and thoughts are inextricably linked, but there is no way to “emotion” your way through a problem. Emotions are like data about yourself, or at least yourself in that moment, but people frequently misinterpret them to be data about the external world. They can corrupt your reasoning, but they also motivate us and serve as the gatekeepers to our decision-making processes. I had a girlfriend in college who essentially operated on the mantra “I feel hurt; ergo, you hurt me.” That’s just plain toxic and a perfect example of why relying on emotions to tell you about reality is a bad idea. There is no “my truth,” there’s just “the truth,” and your feelings don’t have much to do with it at all.
For “Us vs Them” all I can garner from what they write is that they think we should listen to bigots because there might be merit in their reasoning.
No, that’s not what Haidt was saying, and I actually think you just proved his point by categorizing everyone who sees things differently than you as a “bigot.” If you’ve ever seriously engaged with someone from the other side of the political aisle from you, and you aren’t being a closed-minded bigot yourself, you should be able to see that most people from your opposition aren’t cartoonish, two-dimensional villains, but human beings just as complex and intelligent as you who have reasons for thinking what they do. Furthermore, the process should illuminate for you the fact that you have your own biases and flaws, to the point where trying to sort out who is right and who is wrong becomes dizzyingly complex at times. The point is: 99% of the time, it’s not as black-and-white as “virtuous progressive” vs. “insidious bigot.”
That leaves us with the fragility untruth. And here I see at least some merit. The extreme levels of fear in society in general (when we’re by most metrics safer than ever) spewed on by media and news in all forms is making parents safeguard their kids from life. Ultimately leading to kids missing out of a ton of self-exploration and learning from mistakes.
Yes, but when you dismiss the other two points like you did, I’m not sure you really grasp how this is intimately connected to them. You see how we should allow children to explore and learn from their mistakes on, say, a playground that isn’t 100% foam-padded, but not how we should also expose them to ideological disagreements, and teach them that their feelings don’t inherently justify anything–just because they feel a certain way about something doesn’t mean reality corresponds.
Did you watch the talk or just read the summary that was posted? If you didn’t watch the video, I’d really recommend you do. Haidt illustrates how these concepts interact and goes into a lot more detail than that summary does justice to.
categorizing everyone who sees things differently than you as a “bigot.” If you’ve ever seriously engaged with someone from the other side of the political aisle from you, and you aren’t being a closed-minded bigot yourself, you should be able to see that most people from your opposition aren’t cartoonish, two-dimensional villains…
During, and prior to the American civil war the people in favor of slavery were bigoted. During segregation the people abusing and mistreating people of color, were bigoted. During the civil rights movement, those against it were bigoted. During the gay marriage “debates”, those who were against equality were, by definition bigoted.
Some years back, I had a client who was referred for treatment after he was arrested for spray-painting a swastika in the elevator of his building. In my first few sessions with him, I asked him why he did it, and he explained that he simply wanted the Black people in his building to be afraid like he was of them. He further explained that while he was Puerto Rican, he was viewed as White because of his skin tone and features, and because of that he was relentlessly bullied by Black people, both in his building and at school, on racial grounds. He explained he was simply incredibly angry at the abuse he was receiving and wanted to make his abusers feel the same way he did.
Was that 17-year-old boy bigoted?
I put it to you that if you think you can simplify entire populations of people into a single, stereotypical, “evil” group without even trying to empathize with why they behave the way they do, you are no less of a bigot than you perceive them to be. Don’t talk to me about tolerance when you demonstrate none towards your enemy. There are true bigots in this world and they deserve no sympathy, but they are less than 1% of the population, and if you think otherwise you have some serious reflection to do.
Thank you! That’s very brief, but it does get the gist of it and covers the three main points. I still encourage people to watch or at least skim the whole presentation, but thanks for finding a TL/DW for the thread.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=B5IGyHNvr7E
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
