Consent Culture Has Gone Too Far

But not in the sexual domain...

all events have causes -- so many, in fact, that stating any of them is misleading because it leaves out all the others

humans fantasize that events happen in a narrative which we impose on events with their radical multiplicity of causal history

narrative is a lie

often what people 'enjoy' about political content is a confirmation of tribal membership, which is toxic

I find it imperative to switch that off to think clearly

It doesn't actually make sense to say that to be dispassionate is one's passion

an agent can have preferences without having any conscious experience at all

they can be borne out in the system's behavior

to me preferring political content for my personal enjoyment is a moral transgression

we all have a civic duty to be informed

our feelings are not relevant

we all have a civic duty to track the collective conversation

even if we are congenitally unable to experience pleasure

did you skip brave new world?

or were you not sufficiently horrified by it?

have you never heard of "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman?

these were some of my early off-ramps off of hedonism

what an image...

I am driven far more by a sense of duty than of pleasure.

And, don't take this the wrong way, but "Consent culture has gone too far": what we are willing to do is a terrible guide through life

it leaves us lost with little guidance

and my consent is irrelevant if I have a duty to do something

many of the most important things I have to do are things I don't want to do

and things I am not paid to do

because someone else will do them worse

in economics it's called being the 'least cost avoider'

I can avoid a problem more cheaply than someone else? I have a duty then

I have a duty to apply my education and intelligence

to collective problems

you cannot construct a daily todo list or life path by merely asking 'which tasks would I consent to?'

and it is priviledge to primarily do what one wants to

a priviledge most have not been cursed with throughout history

one can find pleasure in one's duties, but not always

the pleasant duties are not somehow the more important

to write only pleasant music is to be a hack

that actions have delayed effects on gratification is no reason to reduce them to gratification

religious ideas of the afterlife teach us to delay gratification util after death

because religion encodes the moral insight that hedonism is wrong

in atheism we have experienced a decay into hedonism

I became atheist without becoming a hedonist in the process

gratification is just one theory of the good, and a profoundly imperfect one

I am not aware of a simple recipe to determine duty

one's felt sense of duty can misalign with moral principles prompting reflection and cultural discussion

sometimes the result is a war

choice does not logically entail conscious choice

since 'unconscious choice' is not a logical contradiction

as Freud taught us, the unconscious is the vast majority of the mind

so assuming 'choice' means 'conscious choice' is very misleading....

feelings are a small part of consciousness which is a small part of the mind

most of the mind is unfelt

you seem to be motivated to deny the dead part of reality

because it unsettles you