Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

Re:Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear fro... by BurningFrog on Sunday July 05, 2020 @09:52AM (#23738637)

People do things that benefit them, and avoid doing things that harm them.

They motivate their selfish actions, to others but also to themselves (Motivated Reasoning) with noble sounding arguments. Our brains are very good at coming up with those.

Once you understand and accept this, you can process the world on a higher level.

The hardest part is seeing when you do this yourself.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear fro... by hoophoop on Sunday July 05, 2020 @10:12AM (#23738772)

Let's stop with the performative cynicism on HN.

There is overwhelming scientific evidence that (mentally healthy) humans are pretty capable of empathy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy

> They motivate their selfish actions, to others but also to themselves (Motivated Reasoning) with noble sounding arguments

You are claiming that selfishness is the only driver but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning goes both ways.

Besides, why do you refer to people as "they"? Are you a bot?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear fro... by Analemma_ on Sunday July 05, 2020 @10:29AM (#23738935)

Humans can have empathy. Publicly-traded corporations cannot.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear fro... by BurningFrog on Sunday July 05, 2020 @10:19AM (#23738846)

I agree that humans have a lot of empathy, and that selfishness is far from our only driver.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear fro... by BurningFrog on Sunday July 05, 2020 @10:56AM (#23739127)

The book to read to learn about this is "The Elephant in the Brain".

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H8K4G9G/

[ Parent | on HN ]