Everything is grey

2025-06-13

I think the title is a bit misleading, I typed it out and realized that people could construe it as ‘everything is depressing’ but that is not what I meant. I was referring to things in terms of black and white, right versus wrong. It is really easy to see things as black and white. My viewpoint is right and people that disagree with me are wrong.

For example, Japanese food is the best and everyone who doesn’t feel that way is wrong. This is a really silly viewpoint to have given empathy, there are a lot of people in the world who have different tastes, I grew up eating a lot of Japanese food but a lot of people didn’t, I dunno it is pretty silly. And there are some things that are pretty black and white, murdering innocent people is wrong, pedophiles are bad, Nazis were evil, etc. I no longer think that all viewpoints are valid for reasonable people, there are some unreasonable viewpoints through out history and that is ok.

But most things are grey and confusing to me.

Should we allow people to eat candy? I like liberty, I like it a lot, and people should be free to eat what they choose. But also food companies market to children with bright colors and TV ads and candy is really bad for them. And there is a lot of obesity in America. Also candy is not only bad for kids but it is also bad for adults, there isn’t really a good reason why anyone needs to eat candy. But I am not a Puritan. My current stance on candy is that it should be taxed a bit.

Should we allow for companies to push the limits on AI. In theory AI could be pretty dangerous, a lot of experts have speculated so. But also if we dont do it then China will do it. Should the US government have a larger hand in AI, do we really want for profit companies pushing the limits of AI? I dunno

There are a ton of other examples like this. And there are much smarter people than me thinking about these problems, which is good, I try to listen to informed experts when voting and stuff.

But my point to this blog is that everything is grey, but we should still believe in things, in ideals, even if we never achieve them. I want to live in a just world, I believe in justice and trying to get to it. Is our justice system perfect, no, but we should strive towards a more and more perfect system, and adjust to the times, and update our laws, etc. I mentioned above, I believe in liberty, I want people to have rights, I think individual rights are paramount, and we as a society and as individuals should fight for them. I really like love and community, I try to be a good member of the communities I am a part of and form real bonds with people. This blog is one of them :P .

It is hard but I really try to be practical as well as idealistic and get a blend of both of them. Sometimes they are at odds and I have to make trade offs, but we just have to do the best we can. So even if everything is grey, try to stand by your principles and act with dignity, and I am sure you will make the world a slightly better place.

-Gary