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0 pointsjs82y ago0 comments

Aside from what ethbr0 said, which I agree, that you're blaming the victim, I want to address the "learned helplessness" idea.

I heard recently that's actually wrong. We are born helpless, and learning to take control. The helplessness is innate, and we learn to overcome it.

In democracy, the innate helplessness of citizens is overcome by learning to participate in governance - activism, elections, public functions and so on.

The people who say "government does nothing good ever" are the ones who want to keep people in their natural helpless state. It's like telling a student, "you're doing it all wrong and can never be good".

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guy982387102y ago

You are definitely not born helpless. Babies keep screaming until they get what they want. They also tirelessly try to master mobility. Learned helplessness would mean they wouldn't even try crying or moving.

js8OP2y ago

I think you're arguing beside my point, I am referring to psychological concept of "learned helplessness", and how is that wrong. That concept doesn't imply that helpless people fall into a total coma, it just means that they don't attempt certain things.

guy982387102y ago

Speaking from experience, babies and toddlers will attempt to do absolutely everything, including flying (which will fail) and using smartphones (where they succeed remarkably).

Learned helplessness can by definition manifest only after you have tried something and failed. Hence you cannot have learned helplessness after being born, because you had no opportunity to try anything yet.

explaininjs2y ago

Please don’t tell me you’re unironically arguing “learned helplessness” doesn’t exist because you “learned” you’re born “helpless” and the only path to actualizing change as an individual is through the official government sanctioned mechanisms… because if that is your honest argument… wow.

For reference, in my experience, the public works projects that get front page news coverage with tons of anecdotes from locals about how incredibly helpful and long-needed the installation was, are those that were completely unsanctioned.

And the only path to substantial policy change in all of history has always been violent revolution.

js8OP2y ago

I am not sure what your argument is. I explicitly list activism as one of the options, so I don't claim you have to always go through official channels.

But especially in democracy, you have a lot of opportunities to use official ways to institute change, like being elected or vote.

I also think there is plenty of positive social change that happens non-violently.

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guy982387102y ago

js8OP2y ago

guy982387102y ago

Speaking from experience, babies and toddlers will attempt to do absolutely everything, including flying (which will fail) and using smartphones (where they succeed remarkably).

explaininjs2y ago

And the only path to substantial policy change in all of history has always been violent revolution.

js8OP2y ago

I am not sure what your argument is. I explicitly list activism as one of the options, so I don't claim you have to always go through official channels.

But especially in democracy, you have a lot of opportunities to use official ways to institute change, like being elected or vote.

I also think there is plenty of positive social change that happens non-violently.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse