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š§µ Thread (13 tweets)
Is there a term for when your behaviour/rhetoric is over-determined by (your anticipation of) the responses of your perceived opponents? š¤ my instinct says āreactionaryā, but turns out that that word is already loaded to mean something quite specific
Itās not just about being guarded or defensive- itās when you devote significant energy into visibly preparing to counter-attack. Ironically this often ends up goading people to attack you because they find your presumptiveness insulting. Which then confirms your assumptions...
I think Iām liking āover-preemptiveā sometimes preemptive action makes sense, but itās a situational tactic, not a sustainable mode of being https://t.co/RN7XQXQVtA
Thereās something about the supernormal stimuli of accumulating negative experiences and interactions online that makes it very easy for even thoughtful, reasonable people to become over-preemptive. In fact it can seem like the thoughtful, reasonable thing to do! š¤
Its perfectly reasonable to take precautions in anticipation of future pain, considering that youāve been hurt before. āFool me once,ā etc. whatās hard is to go meta & evaluate whether the counter-measures are actually helpful. Easy to do it off-field, but in the heat of things,
Anyway this is just something Iāve been reflecting on. I think Iām pretty natural at being an optimistic, good-faith-assuming person, and despite that... I do feel like Iāve picked up a bit of over-preemptiveness via osmosis on twitter. Gotta return to the present š§š¾āāļøā¤ļø https://t.co/Lwap1v00Am
I just realized a funny trap here, like the anxiety trap where you get anxious about being anxious once you realize youāre being over-preemptive, itāll be tempting to preempt ways in which you can stop being over-preemptive š which will be exhausting and lead to bad crashes
@visakanv Hmm I've been thinking about this recently too: https://t.co/rlhth39f8n