Quality of conditions growing up - Street Epistemology at the Secular Student Alliance Conference

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[@ChaseAvior]

Pierce, your statement at the end worries me.
It sounded like you're saying that the biggest problem in the world
is not the cruelty to humans and animals,
but rather, the activists who speak out against the cruelty
and who fight for laws to protect the victims.
MLK was arrested 29 times for peaceful protests,
and he fought for the Civil Rights Act so that discrimination would become illegal.
Are you criticizing his activism?
Do you think asking polite questions would get the job done sooner
than his tactic of massive, nonviolent protests
which influenced politicians, businesses, and millions of people?
The ultra-nice approach does not always work,
and there need to be laws to defend the innocent.

[@LogicalKip]

I don't think he criticized activism. I think what he meant is that some people are activists for causes or reasons that aren't real in the first place. Example : Helping people=good. Vaccine=bad. Therefore activism against vaccine = good, because I want to help people. But if vaccine isn't bad in the first place, then the activism is misplaced, even though the underlying cause (helping people) is good itself

[@PierceWatkinsSE]

In the video I didn't explain myself very well. Please allow me to explain better.
My answer was "people use poor strategies to fulfill their needs".
In other words, people sometimes choose bad ways to get what they need, which can make things worse or not help at all. This happens because they don't know better ways to handle their needs or have a misconception about reality.
I understand this still may not be clear. So I will give an example.
During segregation, those in favor of segregation had to have a reason for advocating for segregation. I suspect almost universally this was "protection/safety". This is a horrible strategy to fulfill this need. Segregationists were operating under a misconception about the world. They believed African Americans would harm white Americans. In my hypothetical utopia where people only use good strategies to fulfill their needs, segregation could not exist.
Furthermore, I want to clarify I think Martin Luther King Jr was one of the best communicators that ever lived. I think his strategy was the very best for meeting his goals. He used I statements and made his needs clear without being critical of the other side. This allowed his message to be heard. I think so much of when people communicate the message gets lots in criticism. MLK ensured this didn't happen. I inspire to be like MLK.

[@ChaseAvior]

@@PierceWatkinsSE Thanks for the clarification. But MLK absolutely did criticize the other side. He spoke out against "southern racists" AND his fellow non-racist preachers who told him to stop protesting because they thought he was making the movement look bad. He confronted them in "Letters from a Birmingham Jail" and called them the "white moderate". MLK spoke with a mix of love AND anger. He did not tolerate or enable racism.
I just feel kind of attacked because I'm a hardcore activist for humans and animals, and I use many tactics because different people respond to different styles, and some people don't respond to any tactics, so I have to resort to making laws to stop them from hurting others.