Context
I gave some thought to what I would like to say about community engagement and involvement in online discourse. I know we are a software company and we like to make apps and create cool things with technology and it could be controversial to allow discussion of other topics, but we are also part of broader communities and we would like to encourage members to have involvement in the world of ideas as well and participate in the development of the software of our minds and communities through language and culture. We want to respect the rights of people to have or share their well intentioned beliefs and opinions without fear of recrimination. So I thought that crafting a vision and values statement about that might be good or helpful to address these ideas. With any of these ideas in adaptive philosophy, they are not set in stone, but can be revised and discussed for improvements any time to add or address other unconsidered nuances of it. This is just the current draft and it is open to discussion.
We give back to the community and participate in initiatives that promote social good. We encourage members to share or hold their own personal political, philosophical, scientific, religious or spiritual beliefs and opinions and engage politely with others in the community about them online or in person privately or publicly as they see fit, following their own conscience as part of their civic responsibility and rights as free individuals.
Free and open communication about ideas and needs, including discussion of controversial topics or ideas, exposing hidden corruption or crimes, preventing acts of evil, or otherwise acting in good faith to prevent harm or promote what a person believes is or seems good to them is essential for progress, optimization, accountability, de-escalation of tensions, and problem resolution. The tensions ratchet up in to full gear when those rights are ever violated, so we see constant drama as various people pull those strings and push all those buttons. However, we do not necessarily endorse or take responsibility for the actions or thoughts and beliefs of other people or individual members based on association or whatever they read, say, or research.
We are not required to nor would want to intentionally assist with disseminating harmful content that viciously attacks, demeans, cruelly mocks others, or is otherwise not conducive to constructive dialogue, or creates unnecessary problems for us or that significantly or repeatedly degrades quality, is too gross or disturbing to us, or adds spam without correction, or in some way violates the rights, safety, or integrity of others here.
Individuals have the right to associate or not associate based on differences in their values and beliefs and to comment and share opinions, agree or disagree, or like or dislike as they see fit regarding the ethics or morality of particular behaviors or policies or alert others about things they are concerned about.
People are responsible for themselves, and we assume most are grownups and whatever they decide to do is up to them. We can offer suggestions or enforce laws or have consequences in some extreme circumstances to prevent or deter people from committing acts that violate the physical safety or rights of others, but the people are ultimately accountable to themselves and maybe a Higher Power, Creator, God, or whatever that most beautiful divine loving presence and state we can encounter in our hearts and souls minds when we enter places of worship and out in a secluded place nature or when looking at the stars or sunset, the Holy Ghost maybe, just awesome glory beyond imagination and words, infinite, it makes you like weep it is so amazing powerful and beautiful and we can have our own relationship with That if we want however it comes to us whenever we want, and we don’t need to tell others about it if we choose not to. That’s between me and That, not you guys, or whatever you are.
(I can’t say that I understand it or have everything figured our know right now what is going on, but there could be something. It could also be something my brain is doing with my unconscious mind and way I am interpreting things an somatic hallucinations or delusions too, or an ego state in my brain. I’m not sure. But it seems to real in my realm in here, it seems benevolent and loving to me, and I love having it and being with it. I’m not sure what all the words actully mean though sometimes. Its like non verbal with me, and I do not usually hear any voices, but something like another kind of awareness or level of consciousness where meaning can flow. It is not easy to describe. However, I’m not a guru or intend to be a like a spiritual leader, prophet or anything like that. I’m not interested in that. For me it is just a personal journey of discovery and mystery. Just me, nothing fancy or more specialness about me any more than than anyone else. It’s the same God I learned about as a child. In our religion we called God the father, Creator of the heavens and earth. I act as if itI’ll do another post on it sometime maybe. But I’m not trying to recruit people to a religion or cult or anything like that. I’m not a scholar of religious texts. But I think about that stuff. Sorry, this is a tangent.)
We do not see any reason why anyone should be forced to change or hide our beliefs or forced to believe, say, or do anything that is against our own conscience or religious beliefs. We don’t have to explain or answer to anyone other than God about our own relationship or connection with God or how God comes to us if God does, nor do we have to involve anyone else with it or have to defend ourselves have justify about whatever we think about that to other mortals if we don’t feel like it. We don’t have to follow what any other people are saying or doing either, about that or anything else for that matter. You can go straight to the Source yourself and chat and meditate or pray with God all day long if you like and it is between you and God whatever you know about that or chat about. That’s all top secret classified information in my psyche, sorry.
We strive to be accurate and factual and to correct our mistakes, but we also recognize that there may be differences in understanding or disagreements about the accuracy of the stated facts from whatever official or unofficial sources, and that there may be mistakes or misleading or otherwise false information provided by various sources intentionally or unintended that can deceive or manipulate in a way that may need further scrutiny and questioning. We do not intentionally provide false information and we humbly welcome feedback about any need for potential corrections.
It is the role of the listener or reader to decide what to do with the provided information, how to discern the validity or interpret it, and also to control how it affects them personally or emotionally. Simply reading or researching a topic does not necessarily mean that a person agrees or endorses or correctly understands whatever they are reading , nor does it mean that whatever they are reading or hearing or thinking is correct to begin with or what was intended by the speaker or author, nor does it follow necessarily how any person might react to whatever is said or written.
We are free to explore and decide for ourselves what to think or feel about whatever topic we want, and we might be curious about things we don’t understand or know about, and want to know more or just learn about other people, without people trampling all over their realities and or their beliefs or assuming things, and we can share their reactions, imagination, or creativity with whomever wants to listen. If we want others to respect our rights, we give others the same respect to have a conscience or understanding of the world that is different, which could also be a possible way that it is and we don’t know what a person believes unless we talk to them about it, and might be even more or better than what I know now, so I am curious to learn about how others are seeing, believing and experiencing in their worlds too and I try to love everyone as I love myself.
I don’t want to fight with anyone over that or exclude people from entering into my spheres who have different beliefs about that, because I would be missing out on knowing and being or becoming friends with lots of great people and I love em all. I let God, if God exists, to handle all that part with them whenever that time is if God comes to them that way in this life, maybe not, or it could all be random or something else. God is my judge. I’m glad they gave me that name, because it makes it easier for me to remember that.
Our goal as part of Adaptive Philosophy, if we engage in philosophical discourse, is to focus on the issues, ideas, and arguments for the purpose of promoting public good, resolving grievances, enhancing understanding, improving wellbeing, or for enjoyment or interest, and we find solutions through reason and logical analysis, but we are also sensitive to and understand emotional needs and concerns, and believe in advocacy, accessibility, and inclusion. We like looking at the other sides of things here and trying to understand various points in disagreement from all sides.
We do not typically focus on or promote negative characterizations or impressions of other people or groups based on projections and beliefs about their unstated intentions or incidental or unrelated associations or aspects of their communication, situation, background, personality or body characteristics, abilities, culture, or customs. But that does not mean that we do not appreciate comedy or impersonations of leaders in other venues for amusement and fun. That is different.
We are referring to useless information about people presented as an argument or provided during an argument for or about something that is unrelated to points in debate. When we focuses on the features of a person not the issues we can become distracted that and caught up in those details, we can end up spending all our time focusing on that, or comments that don’t address anything important, or otherwise lead to bad reasons to accept an argument for the points. We might strongly dislike a person or candidate, but still prefer them to someone else, or agree with various policy positions they have. Choosing a particular candidate does not mean we endorse all of the ideas and positions of they have nor is it necessary defend any ideas we disagree with. We might win some things and lose other things we might want from the other candidate when we choose. We observe people focusing on totally different things during the process of making their selections.
But we also believe is important also to provide feedback to leaders too about what we are focusing on, and the character traits of leaders can be a legitimate concerns pertaining to ability to maintain group cohesion, competence in the job of leading and inspiring others, the way they react to events or treat and work with others and set good examples, and the degree to which these traits indicate potential risks for poor judgement, or how it affects their trustworthiness, creates unnecessary division, etc. I only point out things with the intention of helping others to improve and to give hints about the sorts of things people are actually concerning or important to people. Many people do not base their decisions on affiliation with a political party. Independent voters, or people with no party preference, last time I checked, well, let’s ask our assistant here has to say about that.
ChatGPT replies, “A substantial number of Americans identify as independents, meaning they do not formally align with either of the two major parties. This group can sometimes represent the largest single segment of the electorate, depending on how questions are asked in surveys. Some independents lean towards one of the major parties while others are strictly nonpartisan.”