Dialectics

I'm afraid that I am going to be more annoying this year.

That's not a resolution, just a prediction. 

Annoying people is one of the things I am really insecure about, but if it feels like the right thing to do...

Over the last month I have contradicted two friends' posts. One was about Artificial Intelligence and one was repeating leftist talking points, focusing on Democrats as Republicans destroy the country. 

My feelings on those topics are no secret, but generally I share my opinions through my own posts -- whether a blog post or a status update -- and let other people say whatever they want.

That is starting to feel insufficient.

Let me get back to dialectics.

I believe I have also previously expressed that I tend to find philosophy very annoying, but I sometimes find it useful. 

Dialectics have been following me around over the past year, coming up in The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs, which I finished in July, and in The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change by Pauline Boss, which I finished for the second time through last month.

They stuck in my head more for two reasons. One was that I have a friend who is into Hegelian dialectics so when it comes up in a book, I think of her and let her know. (To be fair, as Boss uses the term it is really more classical and Fichte rather than Hegel. See, I annoy myself with that, but clarity and correctness is important to me.)

In addition, in Boggs' work there is a mention of a mentor who "excommunicated" a few of the group as they adapted their philosophy. The name sounded familiar, and yes, I had read C.L.R. James' The Black Jacobins back in 2016. 

Although at the time that was all I knew of him, I remember feeling like it was out of date. It was written almost sixty years before I read it, so that wasn't necessarily all James' fault, but it seemed believable that he might fight change and evolution.

What I see now -- especially via Facebook, but not exclusively -- is that there are strong tides of influence that are often poorly understood. They stay powerful because of ubiquity or propaganda or comfort and habit, where people really need to update and adapt but aren't doing it. 

My posting on my own feels insufficient; I know the algorithm isn't on my side.

It looks like that is going to lead to me being more confrontational. I hope I do it in a thoughtful and considerate way, but no one really enjoys receiving contradiction. (Some people love giving it, but I do not.)

If I am doing this because I am so sure that I know better... well, you can see why I an concerned that I am going to be more annoying.

But if it's important...
 

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/06/rejecting-ai-as-much-as-possible.html  

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/09/case-studies-possibly-most-relevant-one.html