LIVING IN A Snowflake SOCIETY

Humanity should be proud of the scientific method.

Science has driven us forward like nothing before it. Scientists are known for their intellectual prowess, willingness to be proven wrong, and ability to withstand criticism as long as it is in the name of progress and the greater good.

Here’s a quick definition of the scientific method in case you’re unfamiliar with the concept:

A method of discovering knowledge about the natural world based in making falsifiable predictions (hypotheses), testing them empirically, & developing theories that match known data from repeatable physical experimentation.

The scientific method is a marvel. Scientists are meant to be in a constant state of intellectual discomfort. That’s their game; to constantly propose new ideas and hypotheses even if they might be proven wrong and in fact, because they might be proven wrong.

Mike McCulloch is a Physicist, PhD, Lecturer, author and artist. In his own words, he has “…proposed new physics that gets rid of dark matter & allows a new engine.”

That is some bold physics talk right there. But I’m not here to talk about physics. I know too little about it to even consider explaining dark matter in any way. I’m more interested in a recent tweet from Mike that really made me sad, frustrated and concerned about the current state of society:

Can you believe that I've been banned from speaking at several campuses because my opposition to #darkmatter makes the astrophysicists there "uncomfortable"? Physicists are supposed to be intellectually uncomfortable! That's how they discover.

— Mike McCulloch (@memcculloch) September 10, 2021

I call this kind of action Snowflake Science and it applies to society too, Snowflake Society, if you will:

A society that is too afraid to point heat at their own ideas for fear of the idea melting.

This is not science. This is not a society that values facts. This is not a society that values progress. This is not a society that values equality and equity. This is a society that values silence, fear, destruction and pain.

Our wokeness is starting to affect our ability to embrace progress and be resilient.

When scientists - apparently the most progressive people in the world - are not willing to listen to opposing ideas and put those ideas to the test where does that leave the rest of us?

You can see this new Snowflake Society evolving and solidifying everywhere.

People are afraid to say anything online, do anything meaningful, have an opinion, challenge ideas or push boundaries in case they get cancelled.

There are situations where opinions are offensive and facts are fraudulent but gagging opposing views is not the way to create progress and push the world forward. Creating a culture of fear and reticence online is not going to help humanity find common ground. Rallying mobs to destroy people because they don’t agree with us is not going to end well.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own trauma, triggers, and right to speak up about any topic. But what happens to society when everyone is triggered by everything? What happens to the evolution of culture when nothing is allowed to be challenged? What happens to businesses when teams can’t push back and leaders can’t impart their ideology into their own business? What happens when the far left and the far right decide that the middle must choose or be done away with? What happens when the snowflake wokeness of a generation starts to feel the heat and begin to melt?

If you believe in your opinions strongly enough then a variation of the scientific method is the path of progress. Allow other people to challenge you and engage in healthy debate. Don’t shout them down. Don’t send an army to shut them up. Don’t be so naive as to believe that your made-up view of the world is better than my made-up view of the world. I may have seen things that you have missed and vice versa.

The Snowflake Society that is developing right now is dangerous because it is polarised and binary. You are either right or wrong. You are either left or right. You are either wealthy or poor. You are either white or black. You are either with us or against us.

There is no healthy resolution in a polarised and binary society that so many believe to be zero-sum.

If you believe in your ideas, allow them to be challenged and embrace healthy debate. Lower your ego and find the right platform for the right debate with the right people.

In case you wanted a quick guide:

• Twitter is not the right platform to convince anyone that they are wrong

• Facebook is a big snowflake mountain

• Shouting someone down won’t convince them you are right

• Your feelings are valid and your own, but facts are universal and belong to everyone (gravity is a fact and belongs to everyone)

It’s tiring to watch a Snowflakes Society descend into defensive rhetoric that never moves forward. It’s frustrating to see smart people believe that their way is the only way that ever was and ever will be. It’s irrational to believe that what we know and experience now is what we will always know and experience into the future.

I have a list of Nicisms that I try to live by, update and challenge constantly as I trundle through life. One of the most important is:

Strong opinions loosely held.

It’s OK to believe something strongly and to fight for and defend it but it is more important to hold that strong opinion very loosely so that when the facts change, your opinion can change too.

Your goal, our goal as a society, should be to engage our resilience and to challenge hypotheses until newer, better, more robust versions emerge. Accepting one group’s perspective as the default worldview is a dangerous path to aimlessly meander down.

Photoshop Screwing With Our Youth

This headline might seem a bit extreme but after my post yesterday about the dramatic video illustrating a fat lady becoming a model via photoshop I am a bit concerned.I have friends, cousins, and nephews who all read magazines and watch movies. They see these stunning women and chiseled men and think that they need to strive to become these things. I have heard talk recently of clothes stores being blamed for young girls wearing padded bras, I have heard talk for years about Television causing violence and movies causes crime. What about photoshop?Is photoshop not contributing to anorexia, bulimia and other weight related and image related diseases? Should we not be calling for good photographs of real people instead of real photographs by bad photographers who are good at photoshop and make the impossible real?I say bring on the wrinkles and imperfections, that is what is real, that is what is attractive to me. I don't like every women I see on a magazine cover to be airbrushed in to goodness. It's a big fat farce and I for one do not accept it.Yes I read these magazines but I do not think that these women exist anymore. Maybe magazines need to start printing disclaimers stating how much photoshopping has been done:

Socially Acceptable Behaviour

There are certain things that people do, that people know to do and not to do in public and in places of social interaction. However, there are certain people who forget about these social norms when they are intoxicated and make everyone else feel very awkward and leave the party area.I was at a mates annual house party (thanks bud, what a ripper!) minding my own business being all chilled out on a comfy chair with some close friends when El Doos (I shall name him) stumbles along and sits next to us. We are smoking the hubbling and meeting one another and I'm still chilled and not saying much as I am in a bit of a spaced place. Cool, I thought. Not so much:El Doos: I don't know you, introduce yourself. (I know the host, strange that HE doesn't know ME).Who asks you to introduce yourself to them? Don't you just introduce yourself in that case?Nic: -stands up- Hi, I'm Nic, nice to meet you bud.El Doos: -shakes hand-Nic: -sits down, spaces-Five minutes pass and I think I have ridden over this little social speed bump, apparently I was sorely mistaken.El Doos: OK, it's official, I've made up my mind, I hate you -looking at me-.Nic: -spaced-El Doos: Ja, look I'm just honest, so when I don't like you I'll tell you, so that's what I'm doing.Ok, now I need to interject here; This moron has just told a table of 10 people that he hates me. Someone tell me what the normal response to this would be. There is no such thing. So what followed led to awkwardness and us leaving the hubbly... Dammit. Nic: OK, that's perfect with me, but if you don't like me do me a favour and leave me the fuck alone. If you don't like me, stop talking to me, get up and walk off bud -not so spaced anymore-.El Doos: Why you getting so angry?Nic: Well you know, I love it when a strange guy that no one knows tells me that he hates me and then expects me to be his best mate. There are things called social norms, some of us don't like them, some of us hate them in fact, but in certain contexts you need to fucking use them or you put yourself and others in situations just like this little gem right here. Got me?We all (the nine other people at the table) stand up and walk off leaving El Doos to his own device. What a wanker.

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The Contender - Shocking

Going through the DSTV channels on a lazy Sunday afternoon i stumbled across The Contender. The Contender is a reality TV show based around boxing. However many fighters that couldn't cut it on their own in the world of boxing have been thrown together in a house to train and compete against one another for a shot at some title or another. That's not really important. At the end of each episode two boxers go head to head in a five round fight where one of them loses and is eliminated.The shocking part of this little story is that at these fights families are present. Now I'm not talking about brother, father, mother family. The family present at the fight on this evenings show were children, the boxers children, with their mothers/grandmothers watching over them.What message are we teaching our children by sending them to a boxing ring containing their fathers? The one little girl (maybe 10 years old) was shouting, jumping, screaming waving her arms yelling at/for/with her father to either kick the other boxers ass or for her father not to have his ass kicked. He lost, she cried, looked dissapointed and upset that her father had lost. This child had just witnessed her father take a voluntary beating in the name of money and was upset that he lost.Look, I've never seen my father get a butt whoopin' and I'm still pretty messed up. Imagine what this child is going to grow up believing in later in her life. It's ok to solve problems through violence. Violence is ok when it's for monetary gain. My father did it so why can't I?I just think that it is absolutely horrific that this is what we as viewers have become. We are willing to see people eat things, beat people, fight, scream, cheat, deface love all in the name of ratings on a TV show. It's not for me.

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