11/14

You both like politics.

You: Hello, I'm Adam. I'd like to argue something. Why are you here?

Stranger: Just interested in talking 'outsode the bubble'

Stranger: So fire away Adam!

You: Ok.

Stranger: *outside

You: I got it.

You: I have concrete topics, but I've talked a lot about them already

Stranger: Alright. Any topics left?

Stranger: That have not received attention

You: I've got 'ideas'...

You: wouldn't really call it a topic

Stranger: Alright. Ideas on what?

You: When faced with a new decision or change, the [personal] question comes in some way or another: “Is it win-lose, lost-win, win-win or lose-lose?” As a rule-of-thumb, most people stay safe. If it doesn’t directly effect me, I’d rather be nothing than (me) at a loss. If every decision were a mere probability of those four instances, that’s 50% chance.

You: *lose-win

Stranger: Sure. Game theory

You: That's the unedited version.

You: *do nothing

Stranger: Yeah I guess you have a point, it aligns with game theory pretty well. How do you see it in daily life?

You: Standing for a cause in the world

You: Any cause really

Stranger: I would like to see people not being afraid to act though

Stranger: And some do

You: Animal rights, poverty, environmentalism, etc

You: Do you?

Stranger: There are plenty of people who do devote their lives to those causes, and even risk their own safety for it

You: Of course.

You: The most extreme case is martyrdom.

Stranger: I'd like to say those topics are dear to my heart but I don't do enough

You: I'm sorry for assuming this, and I'm not trying to take a moral high ground

You: But from that statement, I don't think you persistently do

Stranger: I eat virtually no meat, donate to charities and minimize waist, but then again: I fly pretty often and am a consumer in the 'fast fashion market'

Stranger: It's tough to be on the right side

You: Ok, you proved me wrong.

Stranger: Persistent is the right word

Stranger: That's the hard part

You: Consistent better?

You: Anyone can do something good once.

Stranger: Same. It's tough to bring those sacrifices. Convenience versus Conscience

Stranger: Very true. Would you say you are consistent?

You: Yes.

Stranger: How?

You: But can you be more specific?

You: I'm working on being vegan.

You: And more objective things too.

You: "virtually no meat, donate to charities" ~ why not all? which charities?

Stranger: Because meat is tasty hahaha. I sin. And because I support the "harmfree" meat industry as opposed to bio-industry

Stranger: If a cow has a decent life, I'm okay if it ends in consumption

You: Ah, so you buy local meats?

You: That's probably better than what I do on that front.

Stranger: Doctors without borders and Amnesty international, but I'm looking for another, climate oriented option

Stranger: Local, exactly

Stranger: Tastier, support local business and less/minimal cruelty

Stranger: And not expensive if you cut back on the quantity

Stranger: How about you?

You: I give consistently to either a deworming initiative like SCI or the Against Malaria Foundation.

You: Locally, I'm a vegetarian. I also help my campus Engineers Without Borders.

You: We do big things.

Stranger: That's great!

Stranger: Do you fly?

Stranger: That's the tough one for me

You: No.

You: Do you mean fly over there?

Stranger: I fly often for work, so the impact of that compared to cutting back on meat is huge :(

Stranger: I just mean using an airplane

Stranger: Where are you from by the way?

You: I have use planes though.

You: Wisconsin.

You: & you?

Stranger: Then you must feel like your countries ideals are not really aligning with your own right now

You: Definitely

Stranger: With the fracking in National Parks and all that

Stranger: I'm Dutch, from Amsterdam

You: Ya, I see pretty much every country as better with regards to morality

You: you know, than us dumb hubristic Americans

Stranger: Well each has its own issues but your impact is just so much bigger

Stranger: 300M people compared to 17 in the Netherlands haha

You: =)

Stranger: USA political moves just have a lot more global consequences

Stranger: Do you follow European politics?

You: I don't follow any politics.

Stranger: Not in your own country either?

Stranger: Did you vote during the midterms?

You: Nope. I vote. That's it.

Stranger: How do you know what to vote for if you don't follow politics?

You: vote411.org

Stranger: Didn't John Oliver recommend that site recently?

You: I wouldn't know.

Stranger: Are you familiar with the book 'sapiens' by Yuval Harari?

You: I'm not

Stranger: You sound like someone who would appreciate it

You: Looks good

You: I'll put it on the list

You: Do you have a list?

Stranger: Alright, I got to go back to work. Have a nice day Adam

Stranger: Oh yeah man tons of books I still want to read