!dev

Day 8 in isolation.
Im lonely..
My brother calls me.
I haven’t talked to my brother in a long time.
He believes that capitalism is the answer to everything.
It sucks to be lonely in my tiny little apartment so I actually Skyped with him today.

After a 3h call I remember why I don’t usually talk to him.

What he’s saying is:
Democracy only works if the vote of rich people is worth more.
The happiness of your people is defined by the amount of money your country has.
Thanks to Corona, the EU, Russia, Afrika and China are gonna be slums. They’ll be poor and without money.
The US is the only country that’s gonna be fine and it’s gonna be the most important country in the world.
Putin didn’t do anything illegal, he stays president because the people vote for him.

FFS, I tried to tell him my opinion on each single one of those statements, he ignored me and kept telling me how it’s the rich people that keep the clock ticking.

That's why I stay away from politics and politics-related discussions 😁

@molaram good catch - yes, that one too! Although it's quite nice to have a theological - philosophical discusion with someone who is not a fanatic. They are a _rara avis_, but these people still exist :)

@M1sf3t I'd rather not invest any time in such person, honestly. Even if he/she has good sides, "that" takes just too much.

@molaram I often joke that I'm an moderate-wing extremist.

"You will have varied and nuanced views dammit, or I'll put a bomb under your car"

In general though, people pretend to be too much of an expert when it comes to the (global) economy and (geo)politics.

Taking Putin as an example: If you have lived in Russia for a few years, or have had dozens of meetings with Russian diplomats, your opinion on Putin has some validity to it -- otherwise it's just a copy of whatever news channel you subscribe to.

I also think that people fail to recognize that listening to & learning from people, doesn't mean you have to immediately agree or adjust your own position.

There's value in gathering perspectives. You don't have to interrupt people when they say something you disagree with. You can learn from it, without agreeing.

OP: I hope your brother will give you some space to voice counterpoints. If not, just see it as a challenge to study his fallacies in more detail 🤷‍♂

I am absolutely sure you are misrepresenting your brother’s views. I would not talk to such brother like you either.

@aviophile

I don't find it hard to believe that his brother is stuck in a certain mindset.

Over the course of my life I have veered from hardcore "all corporations suck" treehugging socialist to extreme "everything should be privatized & governed by the free market" libertarianism. I've been passionately stubborn plenty of times.

It's just so easy to get stuck into a mindset with zero nuance.

When you are in socialist mode, everything has to fit within the socialist framework, regardless of the topic. When you adopt a libertarian mindset, your brain loves to ignore the problems of monopolization and industrial negative externalities.

You hammer square pegs in round holes, and blame the hole when the solution doesn't fit well.

People's brains are lazy, and nuance is hard work.

Nuance requires you to inspect every problem on a case-by-case basis, research all available evidence with minimal bias, and creatively design novel solutions from scratch all the time.

What kind of Bourgoise shit is your brother into???

Unfortunately it's the rich people who control everything in society. That's why government's can't get anything done. Bunch of rich people fighting for more money/power.

@dUcKtYpEd 😄 I could afford a bigger one but I prefer spending my money on nice cars.

I’m also not anti capitalism, I just think it’s not the answer to everything.
I like making good money..

My dad's buying into the anti vaxx crap on facebook