Cool. Seeing how my comment went from three upwards to four downwards I admit I was a little scared to look at the comments cuz I expected them to be a dumpster fire but the comments were actually really good here... Except for the person asking if i think I'm insane, haha. Just kidding, that was also a really good comment, but others didn't like it, haha :) ;p xx c.
I think this indicates this idea is polarizing and that the people who found the statement outrageous downfloated while those who were able to engage with it in a critical manner posted some interesting content. I think that's a very interesting signal about this kind of idea that it's so polarizing. At least in this small sample size of hacker news readers. who knows how that compares to the general or larger or different population tho?
Yes I've thought about that many times. Maybe i am. Maybe i'd not really know nor understand if i was, or maybe i would see myself and think, yes, i am insane! But either way, if I'm insane or not, by your definition, or any definition, or not, I'm okay with it.
And i often consider if i might be deluded or psychotic. It's definitely possible sometimes.
Delusions are just so compelling, and very flattering and soothing to the ego.
But right now, no i don't believe myself to be, and i do believe what i say.
If that let's you feel more or less credulous about my statements, i understand that, and yet neither your reaction nor interpretation is my responsibility, so i can't help you with it, I feel sorry for you to say.
But if it makes it easier for you to hear my statements while believing I'm insane, i encourage you to continue to do that. I don't want it to be hard for you. Please continue to make it easy on yourself, and have a great two zero two one.
Edit: your comment was downsided but i think it's a great question and a very interesting thing to think about. It for me thinking might about other things, so I'll add.
Sometimes I wonder why do I care so much about such and such a topic e.g politics or geopolitics or something like that and I have to admit sometimes I don't really understand why I care so much about it, at first. so I think it could be useful for me to take a step back and go why do I feel so strongly about this? Cuz I don't want to be an instrument of the will of some idea that I don't understand, nor of someone who's not me.
it's not just comments online it's most of the world is created by insane people. And most of those are men because men are more insane than women and in different ways.
Jordan Peterson has a similar theory and the reason that men are more overrepresented in creators of the world around us is because there's more insane men than there are insane women or they're insane in different ways.
When you figure out that the companies are using the resources of the state intelligence and security apparatus to do their bidding, you see the zero integrity nature of the "professional liars" in the IC, who often find it hard to refuse because of the blackmail material and leverage their employers have on them.
Given the nature of their work, I find it hard to see a situation where it doesn't become the corrupt degenerate swamp it is, unless it transforms to become radically open, transparent and accountable.
Given the vested interests benefiting from the current version, this seems unlikely to occur on its own. The cancer of secret corruption that has eaten that industry from the inside is the Achilles Heel of "Western liberal democracies".
He really liked Twitter. It let him sit up on his high horse, while everyone else flitted around. That's where he was comfortable. Being above. Face to face or phone calls with strangers made him "equal" which he didn't see himself as.
Not judging, just pointing out it's interesting you can have this very likeable and well-loved and appreciated guy who internally sees himself (in this vocation of piloting) as the best of the best, which places him above everyone else in his estimation, which is a point of view that people who see as negative, and yet he was well-loved and he made it work. Only piloting tho, other things he didn't see himself as better than others, but better than was where he was comfortable so he associated most with his piloting.
Slightly premonitive that I had a dream last night about astronauts and test pilots, and very clearly the phrase "the right stuff" was repeated a few times, and in the dream I related it to (I think there was) that movie in the late 80s or 90s about "the right stuff" pilots with a few big names in it. Nothing in the dream about Yeager but I consider that a definite hit tho. I don't think I often get preinfo in dreams tho, so that's interesting.
You don't know empathy (deep into others), what you say is deep into yourself. Not same. Painful is from their negative emotions, plus (for superempaths like me) emotions from all people round you, not you solo.
> I then attempt to do the proper things to make that happen. Society tells us that this way of handling interpersonal interaction is manipulative and evil.
I agree. Empathy is painful. It should not be the goal. I think the outcome for civilization would not be optimal if many more people were empathic right now, we still need a mix. But there are degrees of empathic ability. Only a very few people like me ( < 0.01% ) get the emotions of everyone around them without trying.
I think the general population is comprised only less than 20% of people who are "empathic" to the extent whare if they try, or, are relationally close to someone they do feel their feels. Then, more than 85% of people are "rationally compassionate" in that they understand how others feel if they make an effort, yet around a 1/3 of people do that automatically with no effort.
I think only around 10% of people are incapable of understanding how others feel at all. But if those people make some effort that number goes down to 1-2%. But while psychopaths are in that 10% they're not really in that 1-2%. And those people who "don't have subjective emotions nor do feel anything themselves" spread across all groups. The stronger statement, "don't have emotions nor feel anything themselves" are not present in the extreme empaths like me who can pick up emotions from around them.
Finally, people are not "set" in a particular group. It is plastic, to an extent, but not in entirety.
It is far more common than you think. Nearly half of everyone acts this way. More than 3/4 if you add "to some extent". But many of most of them can be "rationally compassionate".
I think this indicates this idea is polarizing and that the people who found the statement outrageous downfloated while those who were able to engage with it in a critical manner posted some interesting content. I think that's a very interesting signal about this kind of idea that it's so polarizing. At least in this small sample size of hacker news readers. who knows how that compares to the general or larger or different population tho?