Fame, Incels, and the Need to Matter | Rebecca Goldstein

And when I think about certain of just the truisms that we take, you know, that we accept that certain things are better than others, that knowledge is better than ignorance, that clarity is better than confusion, that compassion is better than cruelty, that flourishing is better than suffering, that beauty is better than ugliness. These are just like truisms. We agree those are truisms. They are the fundamental elements of what makes us human.

They are the connective tissues between our overwhelming modern life and our deepest genetic selves. Yeah, truisms. You know, these are the things that we don't question because they're pretty much universally agreed upon. Like these are the things that we just know, not because we just believe in them, but because they articulate a broad coalition of facts about our humanity.

That's what truisms are. Yeah, so they're not just these obvious ideas or preferences that we express, right? I think that is really key. That's like they're not just like knowledge over ignorance or compassion over cruel cruelty. Right?

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