Talking to Strangers

Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book, is about why we can’t catch people who are lying and don’t believe people who are telling the truth. Gladwell is very careful to divorce the act of not believing any given person from identity politics. What I believe he’s trying to suggest is that our cognitive failures have more to do with human psychology than the particularities of any given society in any given place at any given time. Moreover, suffering from a critical misunderstanding is something that could happen to any of us, regardless of race or gender.

Malcolm Gladwell makes a strong and convincing argument, because Malcolm Gladwell always makes a strong and convincing argument. Malcolm Gladwell is an excellent writer and very good at the sort of journalism he specializes in.

That being said.

Oh boy.

That being said, it is VERY FUCKING DISINGENUOUS for Malcolm Gladwell to remove gender from the equation when ALMOST EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE he references involves people either not believing what a woman is telling them or not believing that a woman could be who and what she clearly is.

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Speaking as someone who is often on the receiving end of not being believed, even with impeccable credentials and a strong and assertive affect, I think all of the reasonable, intelligent, and sane reasons Malcolm Gladwell provides for why we can’t catch people who are lying and why we don’t believe people who are telling the truth apply if and only if gender is not a factor – but let’s be real, gender is absolutely fucking always a factor.

And honestly? Not only is it difficult to get people to believe me, it’s difficult to get people to even pay attention to what I’m saying in the first place. I’ve been wanting to do this for a good long time, but I have half a mind to start a running series of posts titled “Men Respond to My Emails” with screenshots illustrating just how abjectly absurd this tendency can be sometimes.

Tokyo's Underground Floodwater Cathedral

The underground cathedral protecting Tokyo from floods
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181129-the-underground-cathedral-protecting-tokyo-from-floods

Cecilia Tortajada recalls making her way down a long staircase and into of one of Japan’s engineering marvels, an enormous water tank that crowns Tokyo’s defences against flooding. When she finally reached the tank’s ground, she stood among the dozens of 500-tonne pillars supporting the ceiling. In the cavernous, shrine-like cistern, she felt humbled.

If Japan is a pilgrimage destination for disaster and risk-management experts like her, this is one of its main temples. The floodwater cathedral hidden 22 meters underground is part of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel (MAOUDC), a 6.3 km long system of tunnels and towering cylindrical chambers that protect North Tokyo from flooding.

I have to admit that, even though I've known about this for years, I assumed it was an urban legend. The way I've always heard people refer to this structure is "Tōkyō no hashira" (the Pillars of Tokyo), which sounds a little like a Zelda dungeon. It's wild that this is real, and the photographs in the article are stunning.