#rational discourse

[burning-beneath]

The Lost Art of Civil Discourse

Free speech and open-minded discussion—concepts that have been debated endlessly, yet remain as crucial as ever. The ability to engage in a conversation, even one that touches on sensitive or controversial topics, without hostility or personal attacks, should be the foundation of any meaningful dialogue. Whether in business, politics, religion, or personal relationships, the key to progress is…

[hippomanwap]

0 notes and i will kill the conservative across the bar from me.

[statleragainstposers]

Love potions are unethical and I'm tired of pretending they're not.

[artist-issues]

Yesterday my German coworker yelled at me because she firmly believes no world religion can know anything, for sure, about God, so there’s no way to call anyone “right” or “wrong.”

And it took all my strength not to say, “so you’re saying I’m wrong”

because truth in love, truth in love

But seriously. What actually is the deal with the discourse that goes: “you can’t know anything for sure about God.”

“Wait, yes you can, like I know you well enough to know for sure that you’re from ____ Place—“

“—no no, no, that’s different. This is about God.”

“How’s it different?”

“You can’t say someone’s wrong about God.”

“…Well, can I say anything that’s wrong about you? Like, if I say, ‘_____ Person likes to kick puppies,’ can’t you say I’m wrong about you?”

“Yes but I’m not God.”

“Right, but you’re a real person who exists, so there are some things that I can know for sure about you—“

“THAT’S DIFFERENT”

No it’s not! It’s not ‘different.’ Quit acting like it’s different. Christians don’t believe in a set of ideals or the properties of rocks or some mystical vibe that nobody can be right or wrong about. We believe in a living and existing deity with an unchanging, eternally constant personality, and will, and DESIGN, outside of ourselves. So we can be wrong about Him. You can be wrong about Him. Everyone can be wrong—OR RIGHT—about Him, because He actually exists.

He’s not some imaginary friend who’s open to anybody’s interpretation. You get to claim an independent identity, character traits, and a personal history, but the God of the universe doesn’t? What is happening?

I’ll tell you what’s happening. You’re fine with me believing in an imaginary figment that’s only real to me, but as soon as He starts having an effect on the outer world, as if He actually exists and you have to start making some decisions based on that fact, THEN you’re not fine.

[thirdity]

“I don’t know,” “I refuse to judge”: as scandalous as an agrammatical sentence: doesn’t belong to the language of the discourse. Variations on the “I don’t know.” The obligation to “be interested” in everything that is imposed on you by the world: prohibition of noninterest, even if provisional.

Roland Barthes, The Neutral

[ingravinoveritas]

"And there's your content."

Looks like we're just saying the quiet part out loud now, apparently...

[mintdinostuff]

Insane to me how Scott can make a minor mistake two years ago and people in MCYT can treat him like he’s the devil to this day (having his named banned, removing him from AU’s, blocking people who don’t hate him, ect) but Skizz can do something even worse and yet slightly related and everyone moves on like nothing happened.

Oh nooo, there’s bigots in MCC and Scott got a little snappy because he was being harassed already (and also he doesn’t control who’s in MCC)? He fucking apologized and also 100% had the right to be snappy, but let’s hate on him for forever woth the vitriol of a mob. But Skizz actively employs bigots and digs his heels in on an action that actually hurts queer people in his community? Nahhh it’s fine. You can dislike him but don’t stop watching his videos :(( He’s just a dad in a red state :(( Give him time :((

Look. I don’t think we should harass Skizz- I don’t think we should harass anyone. But if you jump so hard on slandering a gay man but then defend or ignore the worse yet somewhat similar wrongdoings of a cis man…you’re being hypocritical. Extremely hypocritical. Hell, that would still be true even if they were the same sexuality.

Scott and Noxcrew acknowledged it and got rid of those people, and MCC isn’t Scott’s event. Skizz is continuing the same way and it feels like people barely care anymore. C’mon.

[morlock-holmes]

I didn't say I think "dominant" culture values rational systems (and what dominant culture do you even mean), just that rationalism falls way short on its claims to do so. And I dunno, this is personal, but I can't agree that the subculture that told me "actually you should reframe your entire life around your scrupulosity" is much of an improvement, even if the bar is extremely low. Not when that subculture is full of all the kinds of social manipulation and cruelty it claims to be above.

I'm making very narrow claims that don't really have anything to do with what you're talking about here.

I have trouble communicating how much even high functioning autistic people have struggled with things that allistic people "just know", (a phrase I've heard again and again when interrogating allistic people).

Here's an example, which I believe I heard as a real life example although I can't recall where:

You have issues with the texture of clothing and there are only a few dress shirts you have that you can stand to wear. You have a sudden nose-bleed on one of your shirts and get blood all over the collar and down the front.

You launder the shirt but the blood stains have set in and are still very visible.

Should you wear that shirt to the office?

Most allistic people already know that the answer is, "almost certainly not."

An autistic person is likely to go through this process:

I have no idea if I should wear that shirt to the office or not, so let's figure it out.

Well, I have laundered the shirt so it is clean and sanitary, the stains are just visual blemishes.

All the social messages I've heard since I were a kid say that you can't judge a book by its cover and that looks don't matter, it's what's inside that counts.

And, I have a desk job, I wasn't hired to look a certain way, but rather to produce a certain kind of work, and wearing this comfortable shirt makes it easy for me to work without being distracted by uncomfortable clothes.

Therefore, logically, I can't imagine that anybody at the office will object to my wearing this shirt.

That last sentence is key, and I really want you to focus on it. You **aren't** thinking, "Well, maybe the button down drones at the office think this is a problem, but I know better than they do."

No, you aren't thinking that at all. You're thinking, "I put together the clues so I'm sure everyone at the office will feel the exact same way as I do"

And when they don't, it's a shock.

Now, I want you to further imagine that this is how you reason about other people and the world, but through some cosmic joke you've ended up at an employer where dressing right is incredibly important.

You'll get yelled at by your boss if you wear the wrong thing and your coworkers will turn on you. But there's no published dress code, you're just supposed to "just know" what an employee should wear.

But look at your reasoning above! You *don't* "just know" what the fashion is. Imagine you eventually say, to your boss and some coworkers, "I'm starting to get really stressed about not knowing what to wear to work, I really want to wear the right thing and be part of the team but I don't know how and I'm getting stressed out."

Immediately everybody turns on you. Your boss calls you into his office to ream you out. Your coworkers start a petition to fire you because you're obviously trying to undermine the valuable work culture that they have worked so hard to create. Concerned work friends pull you aside and go, "Jesus, are you crazy? We all stress out about what to wear but you never say it in public!"

Think about what that might feel like.

Now imagine you get fired and at your next job the boss is like, "Hey, the dress code is pretty important here, here's a list of what we expect. Sometimes some stuff is kind of on the edge so you won't know, but it's always fine to ask me if something is appropriate, and if you accidentally wear something that's on the wrong side that's fine, I'll let you know and we'll work on getting you some more appropriate stuff, but you won't get in trouble."

I want you to really think about what it would feel like, as an autistic person, to be at that second job after decades working at the first. To suddenly know you could ask questions or make mistakes at something that doesn't come easily to you after so much time in an environment where you're told that this stuff comes easily to everyone and people only *pretend* to be bad at it to get away with things.

What you're doing is coming in and going, "Well, that second job might be bad for other, unrelated reasons."

I will completely grant that, you're utterly correct. That second job might be terrible for a bunch of unrelated reasons.

But I'm never going back to that first job.

[sad-endings-suck]

and if I said that lots of mizu/akemi shippers are actually mizu/fem self-insert and mizu/fem oc shippers then what?

[deancasforcutie]

literate SPN fans when the writers and Jensen and Misha have all supported destiel and cast/writers on The Winchesters have acknowledged the romantic destiel parallels that structure it and Rob and Rich say that's a couple+intentional writing and official social media mention their date nights but idk are we sure TPTB won't push them and all this dialogue back into the closet like four years ago/false (anti-)fandom narratives blaming creatives and erasing this censorship won't dominate again or still do because who said the beast was gone he was only just away

mishaithinkihaveptsd.gif

[meowdei]

Every time I’m on Twitter or tiktok I realize tumblr is the only corner of the internet where ppl think like me NFJAJ

[noosferik]

porn discourse on this site is so frustrating, it inevitably revolves around vague bullshit social critique and platitudes. it presents no solution other than "x and y are bad, food for thought" and "no it's not". the existence of an industry is the problem, as financial and material pressures are an unacceptable modulation of consent. if this industry is done away with and there is a strong legal barrier to the commodification of sex, there is no systemic issue. all that'd be left would be, what, pornography made by willing exhibitionists which i wouldn't care about - as it's no longer a systemic issue. can anyone be level-headed about this.

[errorryx]

you guys need to stop posting shit like "back in my day we didn't have chatgpt to write essays so we actually had to pay attention and learn the things we were being taught"

not because kids using chatgpt to get through school is a good thing. i agree that it's bad. but you know damn well that there are serious issues with the education system and the expectations we put on kids, and instead of addressing literally any of that, you've just given them yet another pointless monologue about walking to school uphill both ways in the snow.

they're not going to fucking listen to you. you should know this, because when you were a kid, you didn't listen to those people. you're dismissing their very real problems and telling them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. if you ever want to change any of their minds, put down the superiority complex and start sympathizing.

[ingravinoveritas]

"Can't wait to see you lose" "Goodnight from me and my favorite loser"

Move along. Nothing to see here...

[crownedwille]

I've come to the conclusion that loving young royals doesn't mean I can't be critical about it, maybe especially bc I love the show so much I have such strong feelings about it, good and bad and I can love parts of canon and agree with it and appreciate it but I don't have to love it all. I have accepted that it's okay if I don't accept the ending and I don't have to force myself to support it. It's okay to not agree with all of canon and it's okay to not side with all of the creators' intentions/views. Loving a show doesn't mean you have to take everything the writers say on face value and that's the only version that is allowed to exist. Canon isn't everything and fandom is about curating your own experience that makes you happy and not miserable. You don't have to dismiss canon in every aspect and ignore it entirely, that's certainly not what I want but there is a fine line between being canon respectful, allowing some parts to exist and sometimes, yes, you just have to say "fuck canon" and move on for your own sanity and wellbeing

[dreemurr-skelememer]

you're tagging utmv with 'undertale' hmmm, i get it.... It's that one person isn't it?

hilariously, ive been tagging all my work as undertale (both au and non-au) since like. 2016. and frankly im not changing my own system for whatever is going on LMAOOOOOOOOOOOO