Reflections on Tumblr

One thing to understand about me is that I spent over half a decade on Tumblr. More I guess if you count the time I've just more passively been there while minimizing my participation.

I also read through the notes of popular posts to obtain the forbidden knowledge of the world. A steep price to pay, but no worthy endeavor is without sacrifice.

Why It's So Easy To Strawman

It's a lot better to argue against opposing positions by steelmanning them than by strawmanning them. This can enable you to not only more effectively argue against an opposing position, but to better understand your own position, as it will call to mind many nuances that are often overlooked for the sake of simplicity. It is however also easy to think an argument isn't being strawmanned if you're using a real argument.

But the truth of the matter is, most of us make bad arguments all the time. I don't think most of the arguments that I or anyone else make on an average day would stand up to scrutiny if properly and rigorously analyzed. I think the truth is that we (many times quite understandably) simply choose to devote our brainpower to other matters. Making a good argument is hard--making a good argument compelling doubly so. Making bad but compelling arguments can often be more effective than making good ones, which further undercuts the motivation for people to make good arguments.

My point is that even arguments people are legitimately making can be selected in a way so as to strawman that position, and in fact this is the easiest way to select arguments to refute. Don't mistake sincerity for quality.

On Agreeability

It's neither more ethical nor more practical to be agreeable than it is to be disagreeable. I think realizing that is an important step to managing interpersonal relations of all sorts.

People may fight with you less if you are a doormat, but they may also trust you less if they realize that your agreement is not genuine. They may also find you more boring if you behave more like a mirror to them than an actual full-fledged person. And if they don't, they likely don't care about your needs and wants. These are probably not the type of people you'll benefit from consistently being around, but they are nonetheless the people who will find this trait most appealing.

Alternately, you may get more positive attention if you are particularly abrasive and disagreeable to people you anticipate others will find unsympathetic, but oftentimes even the worst people are disparaged for reasons that have nothing to do with their real crimes. Often the most insulting things to say in society are the least incisive in terms of taking people to task on what they've actually done wrong. And in terms of practicality, unpleasantness towards others can of course be offputting.

These are just a few considerations when thinking about handling conflict, of course. But it's worthwhile to consider that there is no one right approach and that it can be easy to go wrong on both ends of the spectrum.