[maiar]

At first, “scary numbers” seems ridiculous. Then you realize we live in a world where otherwise meaningless numbers (also known as “money”) are, because of their emotional effects on others, scaling up to the whole society, legitimately fear-inducing.

[deaddodo]

I think it's funny that 90% of the arguments I hear people having day-to-day, especially in the political realm but also in general, are literally just semantic arguments. Things like "yeah, I'm fine with someone being trans, I just don't think they should call themselves <insert-gender>" or, inversely, "calling someone <insert-gender> when they want to be <insert-other-option> is highly offensive". Like, yeah I guess so, if specific words just have that much power over your life...personally, I just care about what the intention/meaning behind someone's entire point is. Like when my mother used to call my Sega a Nintendo, I knew what she meant...no reason to focus on the semantics.

To tie back to your point. People give so much power to words, and numbers are a bit more abstract but the same can be said of those as well. I care very little that someone else has 250bln USD, however I care very much if they are using that (or have the power) to inordinately effect/shape society.

[tycho-newman]

Wittgenstein thought lots of philosophical arguments were semantic ones when he wrote the TLP. He would later abandon this idea after two world wars in Philosophical Investigations.

[telesilla]

Have you ever had to put in a 6-digit code from an Authentication app, you have 10 seconds left before it renews and you know if you type fast enough without any entry mistakes and no number discalculia you'll make it in time and if you don't well it's fine you'll get another number but you know you can make it if you just focus and in those few seconds getting those 6 numbers right is the goal and you feel anxious that you might not make it..

I think that's what MDR feels like.

[Popeyes]

If you wanna focus on the happy numbers for a while...