Few things are less important than being right

Riparian area, Sabino Canyon

 

tl;dr: Going to try to make the blog more upbeat, mindful, and useful going forward. But not this day.  😜 

Being right is unimportant.

Three observations from the intertubes:

1. Patron-supported content is not necessarily better than ad-supported content. Anything related to opinion (politics, culture, environmentalism, veganism, conspiracy theories, etc.) is driven by the need to be loved. You have to flatter egos enough to prompt people to give you money. "Everyone who isn't vegan like you is an idiotic, hypocritical moral monster!"

This doesn't apply to things like Universe Today or even First Phil Whisky.

2. Related to supporter-capture / loudest-voice: I came across a Substacker who basically writes "Everyone who isn't vegan like you is an idiotic, hypocritical moral monster!" over and over and over again. I asked him (and it is pretty safe to assume it is a him) if he thought his posts are effective at convincing anyone who isn't already vegan. No answer.

I came across this person via a link from psychologist Paul Bloom, who linked to a "Liberals who aren't vegan are hypocrites" post. Dr. Bloom's comment was, basically, "Hate to break it to you, but we are all hypocrites."

3. Related: within-community amplification of negativity makes that community incredibly unattractive to others. <coughveganismcough> 

Example: Christmas Eve here in Tucson was just about perfect, weather-wise -- sunny, little wind, upper-70s. The Tucson subreddit was filled with wailing and rending of clothes. "This isn't normal!"

So? 

More people should die from cold?

You know what else isn't "normal"? Antibiotics. Indoor plumbing. Contraception. Surviving childbirth most of the time. Etc.

Regardless of "normal," nice weather is nice weather. It really shouldn't be hard to see how repulsive it is to be bitching over a beautiful day. 

Can you find a cloud in every silver lining? Sure. But why? Being happy is inherently better than being "right;" better to be a fool satisfied than Socrates dissatisfied.  

More importantly, though, being happy is the way to attract people to ideas that can make the world even better.