Same here. Fittingly, it is the very diversity of rationalism and EA that j_t is talking about, which perhaps prevents me from empathizing much with their story. - Lots of rationalists have the experience of growing up in strictly religious households, then having a dramatic loss of faith or other going through other key milestones, and then experiencing rationalism later as a counterpoint to those traditions. But I have no fond memories of church traditions, so all the awkwardness and lack of tradition that plagues rationalist culture/events is just the ever-present background texture of my life :P - Lots of rationalists are queer, trans, etc. I could well imagine how those traits would seem to dovetail with rationalism and EA in their life experience—being outside the mainstream, figuring stuff out on your own, joining a community of underdog oddballs trying to change the world, working to overturn the arbitrary prejudices of an unfair world. But in my own mental world, I have totally different associations between rationalism and my position as a bland cis/white/hetero man—neutrality, objectivity, logic over emotion, and so forth. (To be clear, obviously men do not have a monopoly on objectivity, and are no more “neutral” than anyone else! Etc, etc. But I confess that these are my personal emotional/identity associations, nonetheless.)
It’s that very fact that rationalism and EA are in some ways quite diverse, which perhaps makes it hard to write an anthem or rallying cry that will speak to common experiences we all share. But although that diversity makes it hard to write such stories, it makes me feel proud of the rationalist & EA communities. <3
I’m sorry, but I don’t have anything to say about the story, because I didn’t ‘get’ what it was saying.
Sorry. I don’t know what you were trying to do because whatever you were trying to do you didn’t succeed in doing it to me.
Same here. Fittingly, it is the very diversity of rationalism and EA that j_t is talking about, which perhaps prevents me from empathizing much with their story.
- Lots of rationalists have the experience of growing up in strictly religious households, then having a dramatic loss of faith or other going through other key milestones, and then experiencing rationalism later as a counterpoint to those traditions. But I have no fond memories of church traditions, so all the awkwardness and lack of tradition that plagues rationalist culture/events is just the ever-present background texture of my life :P
- Lots of rationalists are queer, trans, etc. I could well imagine how those traits would seem to dovetail with rationalism and EA in their life experience—being outside the mainstream, figuring stuff out on your own, joining a community of underdog oddballs trying to change the world, working to overturn the arbitrary prejudices of an unfair world. But in my own mental world, I have totally different associations between rationalism and my position as a bland cis/white/hetero man—neutrality, objectivity, logic over emotion, and so forth. (To be clear, obviously men do not have a monopoly on objectivity, and are no more “neutral” than anyone else! Etc, etc. But I confess that these are my personal emotional/identity associations, nonetheless.)
It’s that very fact that rationalism and EA are in some ways quite diverse, which perhaps makes it hard to write an anthem or rallying cry that will speak to common experiences we all share. But although that diversity makes it hard to write such stories, it makes me feel proud of the rationalist & EA communities. <3