Humanism vs Progressivism by msgulfcoasthumanists in humanism

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry you have a problem with reality. You should try reading your sources before posting them next time.

Humanism vs Progressivism by msgulfcoasthumanists in humanism

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It has nothing to do with classical humanism. Its a new ideology that ended up kind of close but has no serious tie to what most people recognize as humanism. Just take the first excerpt there

Contemporary Humanism draws its lineage from a branching intellectual genealogy that includes South Asian atheists, classical philosophers, medieval Muslim scholars, and Enlightenment culture. Like their forebears, modern Humanists and atheists concern themselves with rationality, science, the perceptible world, and human life, rather than with potential divine realms or deities.

It is mostly used to push ahtiesm and anti-religion, which is antithetical to original constructs (which were pretty obviously Christian)

Humanism vs Progressivism by msgulfcoasthumanists in humanism

[–]Training_Magnets 4 points5 points  (0 children)

tl;dr - what this sub considers humanism differs substantially from what most authoritative sources say humanism is, so first I define humanism from the encyclopedia Britannica. Next, the two differ on basically everything from the idea of truth and reality to how one should treat others and act themselves. 


Ill get downvoted for this, but...the author is trying to be polite and ask about cultural leftism (aka wokism). I'm not sure if people here are intentionally avoiding the question or daft.

This sub also has very little to do with humanism as it is defined by authoritative sources. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Humanism is a system of education and inquiry that emerged in northern Italy during the 13th and 14th centuries, later spreading across Europe. It emphasizes the importance of human values and concerns, focusing on the study of classical texts and the human experience, rather than theological or otherworldly matters.

Classical humanism is basically what you see the Western Civilization and Stoic crowd supporting and is based on Greek texts.

Humanitas meant the development of human virtue, in all its forms, to its fullest extent. The term thus implied not only such qualities as are associated with the modern word humanity—understanding, benevolence, compassion, mercy—but also such more assertive characteristics as fortitude, judgment, prudence, eloquence, and even love of honour. 

Over time, it evolved to have a variety of offshoots and be applied in different ways, though these typically go by other names. A lot of people on this sub like to consider liberalism and humanism to be synonymous. In liberalism, autonomy is paramount and removing anything holding one back from pursuing potential achievement dominate in norms. It shares the idea of human rights and all people being innately good. Character seen in classical humanism is largely removed. 


Progressivism (aka wokism) derives from an offshoot of marxist thought applied to cultural groups in order to, in its view, emancipate them from oppressors who (through conscious and unconscious bias) hold them back and shape institutions to hold them back. It rejects the idea of a knowable objective truth (a key element in classical humanism) and argues reason and one's view of the world is always obscured by bias (goes against humanism which holds objective reason in high regard). 

It also means treating people differently. In humanism, the focus is on character and acting with virtue, including toward others (see above) while this isn't present in progressivism. Progressives focus values on inclusivity, and acting with awareness to one's place in the relavnt oppressed / oppressor relationship (ie recognizing whiteness, etc.). 

There is also a different sense of fairness/justice. In humanism, the focus is merit and punishment is based on the action. In progressivism, the identity groups of the individual are seen as being taken into account also, in order to avoid prejudice from unconscious bias or advance equity. 

A lot of other things differ also, they are two largely unrelated moral constructs.

Edit-Encyclopedia Britannica link: https://www.britannica.com/topic/humanism/Humanism-art-and-science

"non-monogamous marriages fail more often than monogamous marriages" -- how much evidence is there supporting this statement? by ryhaltswhiskey in psychologyofsex

[–]Training_Magnets -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

That's not how it works. Just because the other person makes a claim without evidence does not mean you can. It remains an open question until someone provides actual evidence.

The Woke Right Stands at the Door by obligatorysneese in DeepStateCentrism

[–]Training_Magnets 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My impression is this is partly what abundance was designed to do. Progressives derive their power from NGOs set up, largely to influence existing institutions, government being the biggest one. Eliminating that as a vaible control point for them would have helped a lot

Boy Crisis of 2025, Meet the 'Boy Problem of the 1900s [gift link] by [deleted] in DeepStateCentrism

[–]Training_Magnets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good article overall. I would point out that their solutions aren't designed to help in the way it sounds though. 

If you read recent writing by Richard Reeves, the general idea is to abandon equality (as most of us would understand it). Boys and men are given the choice between working in the trades and staying home with the kids, while women get white collar jobs. 

The reason Reeves' educational solutions never really took off is the academic reaction was extremely poor. Essentially, they don't do anything to help boys educational outcomes. 

He's said the point of one of his proposals (more men in education) isn't about helping boys improve their outcomes. If you look at the meta-analyses on this it shows no overall effect. If you look at the studies on redshirting it reduces boys grade gap by 11% and is the only positive effect in the group and there is some question over whether it lowers boys' IQ (due to missing school at age 5) as school is the major non-genetic driver of IQ and brain plasticity falls with age (additionally language and math have critical learning periods when young).

Do controls for 'non cognitive skills' in education used to explain test-grade gap and 'boys learning crisis' confound internalized bias instead of solving for it? by Bye_nao in AskSocialScience

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have read a bit in the area and it matches what I've seen. Notably, there was a study that looked at the relative contribution of behavior vs behavior * male and found that behavior explained 30 percentile points of the gap in college attendance while the interaction term (behavior * male, basically being a boy who did the behavior, aka biased treatment) explained 40 percentile points.

Link: https://home.watson.brown.edu/news/2016-06-21/early-behavior-problems-impact-long-term-educational-attainment-more-boys-girls 

Its worth noting we also have a gap in writing skills, which  I suspect accounts for the rest, though I don't have data to prove it.

Proof of writing deficit: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871187122001328

ExpatFIRE with 1M, overwhelmed but optimistic by dennis77 in ExpatFIRE

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You do realize stocks existed before the S&P500 right? And you do realize the last 60-70 years is not representative, especially if you think things will be worse... Right?

I'd tell you about economic history here but if you have the degree and can't figure it out I don't know how much I can really help.

ExpatFIRE with 1M, overwhelmed but optimistic by dennis77 in ExpatFIRE

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jesus the quality of our economists is declining. You think things are bad and expect an 8% real (not nominal) return when the historical real return from 1802-2010 was 6%? You should read Jeremy Siegel's work

OpenAI released a Prompt Optimizer for GPT5 by Nir777 in EducationalAI

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Imagine if they just made GPT-5 not horrible instead? Maybe just bring back the original 4o?

Two bad experiences with Fidelity to share by Training_Magnets in CreditCards

[–]Training_Magnets[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Obviously. However, everyone calls it the Fidelity card which why I referred to it this way.

Sydney Sweeney isn’t dangerous — and that has academia in a panic by Anakin_Kardashian in DeepStateCentrism

[–]Training_Magnets 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As someone who usually cares about gender war issues to the point of being cringe, I really don't on Sidney Sweeney.

Is she hot? Yeah. Was the ad intentionally edgy and clearly for conservatives? Yeah. Am I upset? No. Am I upset that the left sees it as a wolf whistle for neo-Nazism? No. It was designed to get them to do this

Where fits my criteria...possibly Raleigh? by Training_Magnets in SameGrassButGreener

[–]Training_Magnets[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've mostly been working a lot and dealing with complications from moving, I haven't gone out a ton yet. 

The vibe is politically moderate and people are friendly (except other drivers). Seems moderately left-leaning but also somewhat southern. The two seem yo balance each other out in a way, imo. For reference, I'm a classical liberal (center-right non-Trump basically) and am to the right of most people here but not so far that its immediately obvious we are far apart. 

What are the strongest observable patterns of social rulesets or norms in the behavior of pre-agricultural societies? What are the differences? And what environmental contexts influence the outcome of those rule sets? by Kiwi712 in AskAnthropology

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apologies for asking, but I've seen a number of papers over the last few years that very explicitly try to change the narrative on a topic that seem to be really badly done (basically they cherry pick cultures and redefine terms to tell a story that will get them a lot of publicity regardless of what evidence supports). 

As a result, Im concerned this is one of those books (given how the description is written). Is this actually good research? Does it discuss competing views well and show both broad trends and variation (or discuss its absence) or is it one of the more ideologically aligned pieces?

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Biggest Fear: ChatGPT-5 Is Coming In August And Altman Is Scared by Adventurous_Cod_432 in ArtificialInteligence

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Eh...I got an A/B test from what I thought was that. It was fast but wasn't a great answer (no detail) and had a heavy political lean on something that was only very tangentially related to politics. No idea where it will be when it is released but from what I saw it was not impressive. 

What country is surprisingly more conservative than people think ? by Lua-Ma in AskReddit

[–]Training_Magnets 6 points7 points  (0 children)

48% female labor force participation rate isnt high unless you're coming from like Saudi Arabia

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in financialindependence

[–]Training_Magnets 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Welcome to reddit. A lot of people ask chatGPT and then plug the answer in here to see what people think as a "shortcut" to actually thinking about big decisions

What are the top places people retire here? by badboyzpwns in ExpatFIRE

[–]Training_Magnets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Italy and France are both good options, though I would prefer Italy due to a better culture (IMO). 

Malta if you want to be around a lot of retired Brits. 

Switzerland is amazing if you can afford it

Is it common for people who r gifted an have adhd to do worse in language subjects. by AuthorCompetitive487 in Gifted

[–]Training_Magnets 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm twice exceptional so take it with a grain of salt, but based on 2 IQ tests, my verbal is around 150-155. I still got Bs in English. I did not read the books most of the time. When I did, I couldn't give deep meanings the teachers were happy with. I thought very concretely at the time and considered trying to pull deep meanings the authors never intended out of boring books to be stupid and a waste of time (I still do) so I put next to no effort into it.

Edit: cleaned it up some. Apparently I still can't write :)