Woozle/2022/02/17/2

crossposted from Nextdoor

understanding conservoidian

It is important to understand that although conservoids use many of the same words and phrases that we humans do, they generally use them in ways that are completely different from how we use them.

It's a little like a "false cognate", where a word in another language may be spelled almost exactly the same as an English word but actually mean something completely different.

Just as an example, let me translate this little comment from RR:

Thank you, Camille, for removing a few members in this group who are not productive contributors. I look forward to better discussions without being attacked and belittled for my point of view.

• "not productive contributors": people who won't keep their opinions to themselves if they don't agree with me
• "better discussions": conversations where everyone is on the same side and there is no dissent, because dissent is unpleasant and people should be nice to me even if I'm saying horrible things about them
• "attacked and belittled for my point of view": shown how completely hypocritical and inconsistent my expressed positions are, and how little thought I've obviously put into them. It's very painful, having been looked up to as an authority figure in some circles where we all believe the same things because those are the things we believe, to actually have my statements *questioned* and *subjected to rational scrutiny*
• "Thank you [...] I look forward to better discussions": I'm glad the manager of this group fully grasps the importance of everyone agreeing with me.

It is my hope that the more we learn to understand our strange, cognitively-misaligned neighbors, the more we can learn to tolerate them while making sure to keep them as far away from the levers of power as possible. Here's to a better future for all of us!