Si No Se Puede
A viral LessWrong post dissects why modern systems ignore individual logic, favoring collective identity politics.
A thought-provoking essay titled 'Si No Se Puede' by Benquo, posted on the rationality forum LessWrong, has gone viral for its analysis of systemic failure. The piece argues that modern systems of governance have two interlocking flaws: they refuse to hear reasonable arguments from individuals, and they systematically disrupt collective threats that fall outside mainstream coalition politics. This creates a landscape where individual moral appeals—like historical Quaker arguments against slavery—are drowned out by competition between acceptable collective identities.
The author supports this with stark personal anecdotes. One involves a friend who was arrested after a neighbor impersonated a police officer to report him for letting his baby nap in a stroller in his own yard. Despite the impersonator confessing, legal counsel advised the victim to take a nonsensical online parenting class as 'groveling' rather than pursue justice. Another example details the author's own dilemma of finding no diaper-changing table in a men's public restroom, forcing him to strategize about using the women's room instead of being able to appeal to universal necessity. The essay posits that this systemic stonewalling of individual reason channels political energy into identity-based litmus tests, like contemporary anti-Zionism, because only coalitional threats wield real power.
- The essay argues systems ignore individual reason, responding only to coalitional identity threats, using the example of a father arrested on false charges being advised to 'grovel'.
- It connects this systemic failure to the emergence of anti-Zionism as a left-wing litmus test, suggesting identity politics fills the vacuum left by ineffective individual appeals.
- Personal anecdotes, like the lack of a diaper-changing table forcing a strategic gender declaration, illustrate how individuals must adapt rather than appeal to universal logic.
Why It Matters
Offers a framework for understanding why rational, individual arguments often fail in modern politics and media discourse.