An original of this post published August 15, 2017.
As we continue promoting our transition out of capitalism, communism and socialism, I’ve notice a continued response pattern I first thought unfortunate. People sometimes aren’t very civil in their criticism of me and Copiosis.
Every criticism is worth responding to, even if it holds no validity (as it stands, not a single critique of Copiosis has held up). But the anger and vehemence with which people express themselves surprises me.
After spending years responding to commenters, calmly accepting their attacks with patience and, maybe a little snarky humor, I realized something: The vehemence, emotional outbursts and taunts are how people asked for more information.
Each time I respond, I usually get more questions in return. The more willingly I respond the second and third time, the more civil people become.
That’s when I asked myself; have cultural norms changed? Is it possible when people calling us “idiots”, Copiosis “bullshit” and our transition “Utopian crap” they are seeking more information?
“Absolutely,” A new member to the Copiosis Social Group said when responding to my question which I posted in the group. He continued:
“It is common for people to grab at the negatives of something rather than the potential positives. People have been somewhat boxed (social conditioning and background stress) into a process that if there’s something that is not perfect, not right, not what you expect, COMPLAIN! This mentality is magnified by the internet whereby (even on Facebook) people can maintain a relative obscurity on the medium and so are much more vocal with their thoughts (both good and bad, see: porn and politics). It’s curious how many of these people would say what they said in real life, to your face.”
(HT: Martin Heaps)
Martin goes on with great eloquence:
“Also it is a factor that to DISCUSS a topic takes mental effort and reasoning (how many people say why they hate the idea? With clear understanding?) rather than an easy emotive reaction to simply dismiss a topic because of an opinionated response “I don’t like it” People have a baseline of being scared of NEW. This can’t be easily fixed, but this unfortunate baseline is encouraged by the various money and lifestyle stresses that people have. Happy people are more constructive, but happy people have to be happy.”
So here we again have an example of how our system keeps our heads down so much, we rarely engage our brains enough to consider the new as possibly beneficial, and therefore worth learning more about.
Then again, it just may be that people are asking for more information when they call your idea “stupid”, or label it something it totally is not.
Welcome to the leading edge of fundamental change.