Living with purpose, intention, joy.
Because that, my friends, is what Radical Truth is all about.
My intention here is mostly NOT to write about politics.
I will from time to time, and a fair amount of what I’ve written about so far has been somewhat political, but it’s both necessary and helpful to reset ourselves every so often, and because nearly EVERY facet of our lives has now become political…well, clearly as you can tell I’ve had a lot on my mind, and there’s no doubt there’s a lot to reset.
But I’d rather talk about life, how to live, how to have fun, and how to create joy—for ourselves and for others. This will come in a three primary forms:
Resetting and reality—establishing what’s real and true vs. what’s not, as best we can understand. On top of that, we’ll dispense with the bogus social programming we’ve consumed all our lives and continue to consume.
Understanding social dynamics, game theory, and economic forces so as to be able to see what’s happening as well as what’s likely to happen going forward.
Creating community: I’ll eventually podcast these blogs, and do podcast interviews with ORDINARY HUMANS, unlike the never ending circle jerk of famous podcasters interviewing each other. We’ll also talk about how to have good relationships with others, whether friends, family, or romantic, and how to build a strong social circle, meet new people, deal with social anxiety, etc.
I don’t have an exclusive license on truth, nor am I claiming to.
At the same time, it would be pointless NOT to say what I believe to be true, right? Like, that’s kind of the point of having a blog.
Moreover, from what I see today on not only the left and right, but on social media and the larger society in general, it seems reasonable to conclude I have a lot better handle on truth and reality than most people—and if you don’t believe that, you probably don’t want to read my blog, right?!
That said, there’s no doubt I’m going to get things wrong some of the time, make mistakes, misstate what I meant or what someone else meant, etc.
So please, when I do: TELL ME! You’re always free to comment on any of the posts, and if you ever want to publish on this platform, I’m happy to do guest posts, even if it’s one where you tell my readers I’m full of shit and why.
Indeed, this happened recently, and it’s actually a perfect example of all three things I want to do here at Radical Truth.
1. Reset—what’s true vs. untrue. What is reality?
In my last post I noted that while tragic, the killing of Duante Wright was the result of two things: A) a horrific mistake on the part of the officer, and B) the fact Wright fought with the cops and resisted arrest. I stand by that assessment for the most part.
However, a reader noted that I was missing the larger culture surrounding the issue: the fact that, though the numbers of people who are killed by police are pretty low, it’s really the day-to-day harassment, the arrests for petty crimes, and the ongoing lack of accountability of police officers and departments when complaints are made or when these matters see the inside of the courtroom.
When you feel like the system doesn’t work for you, or that you’re going to get screwed no matter what, you’re going to fight, even if it’s illogical to do so. A particularly excellent point he made is that, “while it's logically true that resisting arrest doesn't help you, logic plays no part in most humans decisions.”
100% true.
And I very much appreciate the opportunity this reader gave me to better understand the issue. If I wasn’t wrong, I was at least missing a big part of the context of why poor and black/brown communities feel the way they do about the police and justice system we have in this country.
Now I know, and knowing is good!
2. Social dynamics, game theory, and economic forces.
Did you know the basic assumption in economics, that “humans make rational (logical) decisions” is pretty much complete bullshit?
Now to be fair, what economists mean is that when it comes to making obvious and low level decisions, people will be logical—as in, I will not buy an apple for $2 if I can buy the same apple for $1.
But most decisions aren’t like that.
For example, many people prefer to shop at high end grocery stores like Whole Foods even though it’s significantly more expensive; not even necessarily because the quality of the produce or meat is slightly better than the local grocer, but because it’s about the experience—the aesthetics. Up-scale grocery stores look nice, and that makes us feel nice, so in some cases, people would rather buy the $2 apple.
Point is, people are complicated and most of the decisions we make are complicated, and what’s even more difficult to sort through are all the experiences we’ve had prior that impact how we think about the situations and decisions we face today, not to mention our emotional state, etc…
Which is why you might resist arrest, run from police, or do any number of other things you know not to do, have been told not to do, and nevertheless find yourself doing.
However, in his second comment, the reader made what I found to be an odd comparison to Shawshank Redemption, that essentially for a black person to resist arrest in the U.S. is similar to when Andy Dufresne fights being forced to perform oral sex on another inmate—that you fight because it’s so unjust and so dehumanizing, not because you think you’ll win.
I didn’t find that to be a particularly apt analogy, but here’s the thing: I didn’t seize on that and use it as a reason to argue he was wrong. Mainly because he wasn’t.
But if we’re honest, 99.999% of the time on social media, that’s what would’ve happened: I would’ve said that’s a dumb analogy, then he would’ve said you’re a racist, and it would have devolved from there. Because on social media, people aren’t interested in the truth—they’re interested in being right and beating their chests and virtue signaling and playing status games.
Here’s where I want to get into a little game theory and social dynamics:
I didn’t find it to be an apt analogy—but he did. One thing we should always consider when having a discussion is the other person’s perspective. What they are saying, what they believe, what they think, and all their experiences and comparisons and analogies are true to them, otherwise they wouldn’t say it. People are rarely being purposefully disingenuous, and to them what they’re saying makes sense, even if it doesn’t to you.
It was a small part of his point. The main point he was making was that when you feel like someone is your enemy it’s very hard to submit to them, even if you probably should. But so often when it comes to political discussion or points of disagreement, people fixate on the tiniest point of contention and magnify them, rather than looking for consensus or understanding. Overall, I agree with him, so it served no point argue on those grounds.
Rather than assuming he was there to attack me, I saw his response as an attempt to inform me. Too often we adopt the soldier mindset: you’re either with me or against me, you either love me or hate me, etc. What we should do instead is adopt the Scout Mindset (full disclosure, have not read the book, but intend too—also this is a great podcast if you’re interested): what’s actually real here? What can I learn? Should I change my mind or adopt a new perspective?
If I reacted like a dick and argued the point because I saw his comment as diminishing my value, what would I be teaching my readers? A: that I’m a small-minded asshole who can’t take criticism and will never admit being wrong and clearly doesn’t practice the kinds of virtues he preaches. For some reason our society has this weird frame people get themselves in where they can never change their mind, admit fault, or fail, because to do so would cause an ego death they’ve taught themselves to fear (for no reason).
Thankfully, that’s not me. Also, maybe it’s a great analogy that makes sense to most people and I’m just being a dummy.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, at Radical Truth we’ll talk about social dynamics and apply game theory to those dynamics. When I interact with someone, for example, I should have some idea of how what I say in that conversation is going to be interpreted and then acted on, or else how it will affect what they think of me. That may sound Machiavellian, but it’s not: it’s just smart—and I’d argue it’s actually kind.
Because there are some things people don’t need to know, or don’t want to know, and there are other things that people have to hear in order to trust you or love you or help you—and there’s nothing wrong in thinking through where those distinctions lie. This is far more obvious when we’re with someone face to face, but when we interact on social media or online, people often forget that the other actor—assuming it’s not a Russian bot—is a real person, not some smirking-face selfie icon.
3. Community, social bonds, and conversations.
The above spills into the third category: this is a place where we will have great conversations. Where we can learn about ideas, be honest with each other, learn from one another, and forge community. Most importantly, it’s a place where there’s no censorship, where we’re going to assume best intentions, and where we can discuss and disagree and recognize that having different viewpoints does not give one a higher or better moral standing than another.
Readers should liberally comment on my posts—again, especially if it’s to correct my thinking or help me (and therefore every other reader) understand things better.
I also will produce posts and podcasts specifically on how to have good conversations, build strong relationships, and meet new people when we’re out and about. Humans are intensely and innately social animals—perhaps the most social animal of all. We need each other. If that wasn’t clear before I’m pretty sure a year locked in our houses due to COVID did the trick.
And yet, despite our need for connection and community, a lot of people struggle to meet other people, build friendships, form reciprocal relationships etc. I think one of the reasons people are so mean on social media these days is that they’re lonely: they don’t feel anyone listens to them or cares.
Well, at the risk of sounding corny: I care. And I’ll listen. And my hope is that whatever happens here going forward, the readers (and listeners, once I get around to the podcasts) of Radical Truth will adopt that same mindset.
As always, thanks for reading! And if you feel so inclined, please share with friends, follow me on Twitter, and help spread the word!