this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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I get ERR_CONNECTION_RESET when I try to look at the site.
I don't know that I completely agree. Science suggests that there is an objective reality, it is our percepttion that is not objective.
Perception is reality, Plato's Cave and all that.
Humans are mostly driven by emotion and using logic to make decisions, even only at the personal level, is difficult and rare. Leaders, political and religious, use that emotional thinking to consistently short circuit logic and rationality. They drive emotional thinking in whichever direction to achieve their goals, usually at the expense of the people.
Personally, I've had 'good' results over the last few years deliberately divorcing emotion from the decision process and just looking at the facts as best I am able to understand. Watching everyone around us going nuts: friends and family into Qanon and MAGAtry, vaccine denial, etc. It's been painfully educational.
Best I can tell, most people are functionally illiterate and irrational. (Illiterate may not be the correct word, un-critical maybe?)
I now think that most people of the left are the same, maybe a little better. Tankies here on Lemmy are a great example, they're so emotional that their brains have fallen out. I fall firmly on the left even if I think that most of us aren't really thinking and are actually working off what feels correct.
So, while I do think there is objective reality, I don't think most people are even trying to work off it. I'm not sure that we can. So, functionally, reality is pretty subjective.
I do know that, personally, I'm driven to try and gain as accurate a worldview as possible given the facts and science available to me.
I have almost no mysticism left in me. I do feel awe at the natural world, the cosmos, my love for my people. I'm comfortable allowing that feeling guide some of my decisions. I don't think much personal harm will come from a deep respect of nature, for instance.
After losing my religion, I have defined my life's purpose as taking care of my people. It's arbitrary and emotional, but it brings me comfort.
Whoops, I'm too used to typing an S in web addresses. The link should work now.
I think people are trying to work off of objective reality, and that's a problem. For example, TERFs correctly understand that gender identity is subjective, but they make the mistake of thinking sex is objective. Because they're committed to working off objective reality, they believe sex is more important than gender, and dismiss gender. Thus, all their transphobia. If they didn't believe in reality, they wouldn't be TERFs. They'd value the subjective construct of sex and the subjective construct of gender identity equally in terms of truth, and recognise that gender identity is important to our wellbeing. I wish people didn't try to follow reality.
Late response, busy few days.
It's still not loading for me. Getting a white screen with a stuck load bar. Haven't tried it on a computer, just android. Maybe just post it here?
I agree that most people think they're working off reality. I generally think I'm working off reality, but then if you think about how little we actually percieve, we have a very dim view of reality. Extend this to the universe and beyond, and all our knowledge is a tiny rounding error that vanishes into zero.
All that being said, this isn't really anything you can live by. At least I can't. Most metaphysics are so much shit on a prick and untestable. My favorite is the simulation hypothesis, and one day we'll all live happily ever after in the computer. Not that it any way applies to my daily life.
Gravity still works, the sun will rise tomorrow, and vaccines generally reduce your risk of catching diseaes. So, I proceed with my best understanding of reality as I experience it. I try to force myself to face facts and change my mind given evidence.
So, back to the original topic. Here's a theroy: holding power and wealth in modern society may not be strongly correlated with an accurate view of objective reality but is strongly correlated in strongly believing you have an accurate view of objective reality. It also helps if you're a motherfucker that's willing to grind the bones of babies under your boots to get what you want.
As far as human society goes and the mutability of things like gender, money; mostly social constructs related to culture that has just grown by chance.
I do think we can point to some things that are pretty foundational to human culture, might even be impossible to remove: We're omnivorous primates that evolved into small family/tribal groups of 50-100 individuals. We sexually reproduce through pairing by individuals that usually have a heterosexual preference. Those offspring benefit from at least the semi-monogamy of their parents. They benefit from their family/tribe which includes individuals that don't conform to the most common gender/sexual habits.
That being said, we don't have to conform to that. Society can be whatever we make it, maybe. Maybe not, I don't have a crystal ball, there may be limitations on how you can style society barring genetic modification or brain surgery or something.
Have to get some shit done. I'll read through later and respond.