Thread by @doriantaylor

i feel like this kind of thing is only going to increase

https://twitter.com/dburbach/status/1304541520712937472

by "this kind of thing" i mean something like… "opportunistic misinterpretation"

"the thing you said sounds like some other thing i don't like and i don't actually care about the details, i'm just gonna co-opt it into my narrative/conspiracy theory/etc"

criticisms of "triggering" tend to deride the subject as lacking control over their emotions, though there is the disingenuous type who doesn't *want* to control their emotions because they have decided up front that they are looking for a fight

reminds me of the bully who coerces you into a conversation and then disingenuously misinterprets your response as an insult

he then uses this manufactured outrage as moral justification to kick your ass

experiences of the last few years have made me a staunch believer in motivated reasoning:

we don't scan the environment and then decide what to do, we decide first and then move into the environment in a way that corresponds to the narrative

the internet connects the world but the actual density of information is low

we fill in the rest with apophenia

robust (ie against misinterpretation, opportunistic or otherwise) relationships require a lot of information throughput

the kind of throughput you get quickest with meatspace, and only much slower otherwise