Normies mistrust weirdos -- and they’re right to do so

The precondition of a working society is mutual trust.

The precondition of a working society is mutual trust. “Society” is just a bunch of deals — “mutually beneficial trades”, as economists call them or “win-win deals” as marketers with a better ear for language do — and the precondition to enter a deal with someone is trusting them as a counter-party. Trusting them to keep up their end of the deal, so that you can actually benefit from it actually going through; but also trusting them in a more basic way: trusting them not to actively harm you. You’d rather take a loan from a bank than a loanshark, even if the rates were worse and the reason…

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• Timothy Kostolansky

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