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PRIMITIVE_MODERNS

                                             July 16, 2021

Because I've read a lot of older intellectual
chatter, I'm familiar with a trope that used
to be remarkably common:

The comparison of ourselves, the enlightened
moderns to mankind in it's primitive natural
state--
                                                 CANDY_FROM_A_RHETORICAL_BABY


This is typically a mess of unexamined
assumptions, not the least of which is
how are we supposed to know much of
anything about pre-history?  We weren't       TRIBAL
around then, and the archeological
record is sketchy.  Alternately, why
would you assume that some currently
existing non-Western culture is
"primitive" rather than just different,
and how good is the anthropological
accounts you have about them?

This is a comparison of the known to the unknown
that's supposed to works by swapping in some plausible
sounding story in place of the unknown.


   That story might be true or false,
   but what's almost always true is
   the speaker has no evidence for
   believing its true, and doesn't
   bother to argue the point.



       This kind of stuff has thankfully
       become much more rare in the actual
       modern world-- it's a symptom of the
       primitive state of our intellectuals
       back in the dawn of the Modern Era.

                                             MODERN_CIVILIANS


But then, there's also the common converse syndrome
of projecting your desires on those primitives,
fantasizing about a simple, natural life-style
where you can just goof off and have sex a lot.


                        TRASHING_MEAD
                        TRASHING_DEEPER

                        PITA_MAHA

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