Contradio

For the delightfully cantankerous (disagreeable, non-neurotypical), our goals are:
1) Increase appreciation of this trait in society
2) Learn to use it better

[Contradio @contradio]

Disagreeability is perhaps the most underappreciated of temperamental aptitudes. Human progress has always relied on skeptics too dissatisfied with current orthodoxy and not polite enough to be quiet about it. Some contrarians may disagree. Make no apologies.

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

The richest man in America signed a document that could have gotten him hanged, and when someone sneered that he was safe because no one would know which Charles Carroll to come for, he picked up the pen and told the British exactly where to find him.

His name was Charles Carroll, and the colonies were crawling with men who shared it. His own father was Charles Carroll of Annapolis. So when the Declaration of Independence came to him for signing in 1776, a delegate made a cruel little joke. He said Carroll risked nothing by signing. There were so many Charles Carrolls that the King's men would never know which one to hang.

Carroll didn't argue. He leaned over the page and added three words to his signature: "of Carrollton." The name of his estate. His address. He was the only signer in the entire room who wrote down where he lived, and he did it on purpose, so that if the British wanted to come hang the traitor, they would know exactly which door to knock on.

That is who Charles Carroll of Carrollton was.

Here is what makes the moment even sharper. He was not a man with little to lose. He was the single wealthiest man in the thirteen colonies and the largest private landowner among them. While George Washington and John Hancock get talked about as rich men, it was Carroll who topped them all. When he signed, he was wagering the biggest personal fortune in America against a noose.

And he was the last man anyone would have expected to be there at all. Carroll was Catholic. In colonial Maryland, a colony founded as a Catholic refuge that had since turned on its own, Catholics could not vote. They could not hold public office. They could not worship in public. The most educated, wealthiest man in America was, in the eyes of the law, a second-class subject barred from the very government he was helping to create. He had spent seventeen years being educated by Jesuits in France and spoke five languages fluently, and back home he still could not legally cast a ballot.

So he became the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, putting his name on a revolution that he hoped would build a country with room for men like him. That was its own enormous bet, made by a man the existing system had already shut out.

Then he simply outlived everyone.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the same astonishing day, July 4, 1826, exactly fifty years after the Declaration. When they were gone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton was the last living signer left on earth. For six more years he was the final human link to that room in Philadelphia, the last hand that had signed, a living relic of the founding that ordinary Americans traveled to see and shake.

He finally died in November 1832 at the age of ninety-five, fifty-six years after he wrote his address on a treason document and dared the empire to come find him.

The richest man in America. The only Catholic. The last one standing. He had more to lose than any of them, every legal reason to stay quiet, and he signed his full address anyway.

We remember the names we were handed in school. We forget the man who made sure his couldn't be mistaken for anyone else's.

Which Founding Father do you think history shortchanged the most?

[Contradio @contradio]

Still alive. Still cranky. 👊

This message is for no one in particular. Especially not for you.

[JºHNNYPRºDUCΞ.ethᵍᵐ @johnnyproduce]

Thank you @jackbutcher for leading the way! Inspired by your Checks & projects like 100 meals that were leveraged to make real work impact with important non-profit work, we're dropping Unchecked Piracy. All proceeds from this mint go directly to the 501C3 non-profit @TheWell813

[Contradio @contradio]

@AlecStapp Make it legal in any particular place, and they’ll immediately find a different place that it’s still illegal. That sort of peacocking requires inordinate risk and outgroup disapproval.

[Naval @naval]

Hierarchy in startups:

Founder > Investor > Manager > Employee > Customer > Founder

[Contradio @contradio]

@DavidSacks A paltry $1B penalty after full discovery in open court (even sealed/gagged would be referable to SEC) may just be creative and well strategized philanthropy. Except that if it works, he may also get another bite at the apple.

[Ben Robbins @benrobbins]

Smart people should listen to smart people.

[Ben Robbins @benrobbins]

We may disagree with most people on many things, but usually not so many as we disagree with our former selves on. We can’t learn much from those we already agree with, and are hopefully not ready to stop learning, so perhaps we should learn to be more at peace with disagreement.

[Ben Robbins @benrobbins]

I’m homeschooling my very smart but also very disagreeable 14yo son for the 9th grade. There are some parts of the curriculum that he won’t like, so I wrote him a letter on @LetterWiki to explain why. https://t.co/aGzExJX3GA

[Thomas Sowell Quotes @ThomasSowell]

The real question is not which policy or system would work best ideally, but which has in fact produced better results with far from ideal human beings.

[Scott Barry Kaufman ⛵ @sbkaufman]

The need for cognitive independence is a truly underrated need for some humans.

[The Free Speech Union @SpeechUnion]

Research shows that Americans are self-censoring at record rates because they are afraid to share their political views 😳

The state of free speech in 2020.

https://t.co/pyHIP29dD6

[Contradio @contradio]

Keep your unicorns and rainbows to yourself, please.

[Contradio @contradio]

God save the contrarians.

[James Lindsay, anti-Communist @ConceptualJames]

In a world full of people who will take a knee even when they've done nothing wrong, be a person who will stay standing, straight and tall, head well above the crowd, where it belongs.

[Andrew Doyle @andrewdoyle_com]

The belief that expressing an opinion or exploring ideas is “fanning the flames of hate” is typical among those who demand ideological conformity.

If these activists were secure in their convictions, they’d have nothing to fear from discussion.

[Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin]

Guys, guys, Galileo wasn't actually cancelled. He just found out that free speech has consequences.

[Contradio @contradio]

When dissent is suppressed in any organization or society, it is those who are unusually low in agreeableness that continue say what everyone else is secretly thinking. They inspire more open dialogue and serve as a bulwark against totalitarianism. https://t.co/Q5mZzwKvJr

[Contradio @contradio]

Well said. An effective writer expands their readers horizons by introducing new information and perspectives carefully and clearly. Contrarian instincts are crucial, but are most helpful when tempered by discipline.

[Contradio @contradio]

These four planks of cancel culture are sadly all too effective at diminishing any critique and silencing any who would dissent. The resulting coerced agreeableness is disingenuous on the part of both the silencers and the silenced. The courageous will have no part in it.

[Yascha Mounk @Yascha_Mounk]

We need to oppose four core principles that are silencing speech:

1) Disagreements threaten personal safety

2) It's possible to be contaminated by association

3) Intent doesn't matter

4) If in doubt, get the authorities involved

@EmilyYoffe.

[Thread]
https://t.co/PEeBE5ah0k