Whenever I first read about what dialectical materialism is I didn't get it because it's like "that's how thinking works, duh. How else would you do it"? I've always thought that way, to the point that I struggle to think any other way. Idealism always made me extremely frustrated and confused and feel like the people using it had suddenly lost their mind. Even as a kid who didn't know what any of these words meant that is how I felt.

I figured out enough as I grew up, but I'm still not completely comfortable around people who think the way most Americans(and Westerners in general) think.

It may not be the dialectical materialism exactly that people I can more closely relate to believe in, but just the fact that they can think coherently, and consistently think coherently. They won't just accept contradictions without figuring out where they meet. If you point out a contradiction they can talk about it, they don't assume you have some special motivation for asking questions and begin searching for said motivation, ignoring what you said in the process.

I have a feeling there is some theory or something somewhere that would give me the vocabulary to talk about this more clearly. I'm struggling to find terms for these concepts.

What's up with that?

  • MendingBenjamin [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    First, answering your question at face value: yes. Liberalism requires and crafts certain personality traits in its citizens and if you don’t embody that personality, it’s very alienating and frustrating.

    But there’s also bits here where it reminds me of how neurodivergent people talk about neurotypical people, particularly this:

    They won’t just accept contradictions without figuring out where they meet. If you point out a contradiction they can talk about it, they don’t assume you have some special motivation for asking questions and begin searching for said motivation, ignoring what you said in the process.

    Personally, I find that there are social labyrinths around many subjects which make it so that, no matter what is said, it’s impossible to get across what you mean because of these unspoken inferences that get added onto your words by the listener.

    • furryanarchy [comrade/them,they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I thought about making an autism disclaimer for that part, but the disclaimer would have been several times longer than the statement itself. This is distinctly different from that, I'm definitely not autistic and is something different from the struggles I've seen people with autism have.

      I think a better way of saying that is many people are so used to just using mystical thinking about certain things that they literally cannot comprehend that you are trying to actually talk about something. The idea that you are actually just trying to talk about the thing and not trying to pull something is so alien to them they get all defensive and scared.

      • MendingBenjamin [they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Okay yeah then I think it’s closer to the first thing I said about unspoken implications and I definitely share your frustration. Thank you for clarifying