kohlrak: Dumbing down can actually make many things more difficult, especially in the long run. Think of how language classes teach "simplified" pronunciation and grammar rules, which as you learn more, those rules can get you into more trouble when you're trying to apply them in a more nuanced situation, and then when you find the "normal way," it becomes next to impossible to understand, since you got the simplified rules. The effects of english natives learning Japanese via the roman writing system is a classic example of this, and I could go on for hours about how many people i've seen screwed over by this "simplification," to the degree that they'll likely never be able to speak Japanese in a way that could be understood by Japanese people, because they can't unlearn their worst habits.
The idea of the overton window isn't "dumbing down," but making radicals (especially in politics) seem less radical or even rational, by producing more extreme radicals, or you could use the window to make a stance you want "neutral" by "pushing the window" further out. Think of how "box and whisker plots" (Škatla z brki) are done: you make the radicals the outliers, but if you create new outliers, the old radicals become the fringes of normal, and if you extend the fringes of normal, you can move the midpoint as well as the average.
Well, he was a furry. We got into it because he didn't believe canines should be on leashes, and chose to rant about it in a facebook post about a situation where 2 dogs almost fought each other (which was prevented by leashes), due to improperly long leashes (the more aggressive dog was actually able to reach into the public sidewalk, and even i almost had an altercation with this dog [he actually tried coming after me] at a later date, because of it). I had talked to the guy before on unrealistic expectations and lying (he has a history of pushing arguments he himself doesn't believe in because he believes the thing he's advocating for is easier to swallow than his actual stances and the ideas are "close enough"), and this was another clear case of him basically bullying my girlfriend who was already upset over the fact that her dog was a bigger dog and got scarred and almost got loose and ran out in front of a car because of this aggressive little dog.
Let's just say, I'm glad we could avoid that.
I can't get along with GOG's quoting system, so bear with me.
Response to paragraphs 1:
Let me stop you.
I'm not saying that things should be simplified in general.
"Dumbing down" is a technique I like to use when facing a new concept.
By simplifing it I can see if I'm moving in the right direction in trying to "get it".
So my question was if "overton window" can be simplified to:
"So it's along the lines of making a bad idea more pouplar and then making it more accepted because it became popular?"
Response to paragraphs 2:
"Furry" by itself has a huge potencial to be misunderstood (why I like to avoid it).
"Furries like anthroporphic animals" is the brodest definition. That doesn't make all of them overboard animal rights "maniacs".
I do see how his opinon was extreme and not funcional and why you got rightly upset.
I'm not defending or accusing anyone, I'm just saying that there isn't neccesarly a connection between "furry" and "extreme opinon on anything animal related".
I enjoyed the fact that you said "bear" with me in regards to furries. *ba-dum-tsh*
I'll,uh, see myself out now.
