#gadflies

[liskantope]

Another podcast episode clip with Chris Williamson that I failed to resist clicking on, and again it's with a guest who appears to be an unabashed conservative. But near the end of the video she makes a point really, really well about conservatism vs. progressivism that I don't think I've heard made before and haven't considered before. I want to record it here for bookmarking purposes. It kind of reflects a fuzzily but distinctly -felt conservative sensibility I've gradually noticed rising in me over the past year or two (and take absolutely no joy in).

She explains that when someone is defending traditionalism and a norm that used to be dominant, they often wind up being forced to get bogged down in disavowing every other trend or belief that was prevalent in the society where the tradition they're defending was practiced. This is a disadvantage of being in the position of advocating something that used to take place in a past society that actually existed and can be examined for its ugly aspects as well as the arguably better ones. Whereas...

if you're a progressive, you can say, "I can see this vision, you know, in the future, like we'll have this amazing society where everything's great." And the fact this has never happened and is never likely to happen means that you're never in the position of having to defend anything unfortunate. You never have to talk about trade-offs. I think that, like, acknowledging the existence of trade-offs is a fundamentally conservative trait.

I'm really not so sure that acknowledging the existence of trade-offs is more of a conservative trait than a liberal (or specific to any particular ideology) one. I don't think I've ever noticed it predominantly belonging to conservatives. If anything, I guess it's a sort of rationalist-ish trait, and it's something that I've been fixated on for about as long as I can remember (and not unrelated to the "gadfly" stuff I used to write about back when I used to try to write like a rationalist).

[xuemo]

“Gadflies“

“现在看来，我后来的事业，其实也得益于那些邪灵。它们像牛虻一样，每当我这头老牛想懈怠的时候，就时不时刺我一下，让我生起警觉和精进。”

[liskantope]

I want to express a couple of thoughts about Tumblr user bambamramfan’s recent post on fear.  I’ll just link to the original post “Fear Trumps Hate”, since it feels a little tacky to reblog something I already reblogged without comment, and to link to some of my own long-form posts in the reblog no less.

The essay hits the nail on the head concerning what I consider an excellent example of what I was talking about in my two Wordpress posts on gadlies (in which I depict gadflies as bearers of possibly inconvenient speculations on difficult situations which we are all too inclined to ignore).  In fact, I had this example somewhere in my mind when I was writing both posts.

Sometimes a particular cultural environment learns to embrace certain kinds of gadflies once it has become well-armed with repellent against other opposing ones.  In this case, we have groups of people who are inclined to be hostile to other groups.  The speculation “maybe this group has a legitimate fear of the other and has the right to act on it” will always be present in such a situation, but then there is always the counter-speculation “maybe this fear is in fact invalid, and then it’s important to consider the harm done by acting on it”.  It seems that in our current society, the latter speculation is discouraged from even entering our conscious deliberations.  Of course, those in opposition to said fear-induced hostility will inevitably try to go the “your fear is invalid” route however indirectly, but outside of spaces composed of like-minded folk, the repellent against that “gadfly speculation” is so strong that we are conditioned to pattern-match their rhetoric to “asshole!”.  This is also an example which illustrates the relationship I clumsily tried to argue in my first linked post between “gadfly-repellent” and Scott Alexander’s conception of superweapons.

(By the way, another instance of the “never suggest someone’s fear is invalid” norm is the way police officers seem to defend their aggressive policies in a lot of the ugly incidents of brutality that we’ve seen lately.  It seems that for the police, there has generally been a norm of “But we felt legitimately unsafe!” generally being a valid defense.)

It might be that in many cultures throughout human history, hate trumped fear -- maybe hate was considered a form of strength while fear was a sign of weakness or wimpiness.  But that sure doesn’t seem to be the way things are today.

[manipulcate]

the line between good and bad as well as right and wrong disappeared months ago . cate keeps trying to tell herself she's been doing the right thing - manipulating her friends in order to try and keep them safe was probably not the best idea . yet there she was doing exactly that .

it's your life, do what you want to . those words hit her like a tonne of bricks . gloved hands toy with the hem of her skirt, wide gaze dropping for a moment . ' i want - ' she pauses, composing herself . cate's gaze rises &. meets the other woman's .

' i want to do the right thing . '

@gadflies .

[godunlap]

AN IRRITATING BUZZ FLOODING IT'S EARS, blood - stained hands swatting at the persistent critters that have taken an interest. creatures of taste as they are — drawn to the rot of it, to the dead core. ❝ oh that's a fun one, you control them? ❞ the barely - there brush of their legs against cooling skin - possibilities swarming just as frenzied as the bugs now. ▒ @GADFLIES.

how quickly could she cut off a person's airway? overrun their orifices with the sheer bulk of them? ❝ i promise to take care of your friends while wearing your skin. ❞ the imitation of a smile, entirely too many teeth disrupting the illusion of humanity. - [ 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚎 ].

[sgrspiced-a]

❛ YOU CAN'T KEEP ME HERE FOREVER. we both know that. ❜

her words are shaky, attempting to hold conviction they're both aware she doesn't have . she's fucking - terrified, really . alejandra hates that word , right down to the very core . supes don't get terrified , humans do . alejandra does , and weathervane does not .

❛ and just because you're trying to convince me doesn't mean it will work , either . ❜ but it already is, isn't it ? just a bit . the promise of a life a w a y , a life where she does not have to be weathervane . a life away from the carnage and the blood , where she won't have to walk through bodies . cradle their heads in her lap so the last face they see isn't one that hates them . it's been like clockwork. the days following what happened , ( damage control , press tours, more damage control ) . it's easy to be a media pawn when you didn't know what was happening before it got too late . ale thinks elle is the only person she could talk to f r e e l y at this point .

she snaps out of the brief reverie , eyes squeezing shut for a moment . small hand shoots to her opposite wrist, s n a p s the rubber band there once , twice , three times . a deep breath . she starts to pace the hardwood floor of their ( it belongs to @gadflies , really , but - well , ale says she sleeps here every night so she should be on the lease ) apartment . little sparks shoot between her fingers and she feels h o t .

❛ i have to stay and help , i can't just - i can't leave , elle . ❜ her voice cracks ; tears threaten to well up , but she blinks them away . if she isn't useful , what is she ?

[112testing]

We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent.

Abraham Flexner