I'm quite sure the explosion of social media is a major factor here but I don't ever recall a time when the world appeared to have so many people questioning and challenging, well... everything ! You could always find the very intense guy down the pub who would try to convince you that the Earth was flat, they never landed on the moon or they were putting drugs in the water supply, but they were rare. Rare enough to be amusing to the rest of the locals. Nowadays, the insanity has spread to half of the pub.
Far too many people think that their uneducated opinions are of equal value to the accumulated knowledge of accredited experts. When the hell did that deluded arrogance start ?
We have millions of people around the world claiming that;
Climate change is a hoax, Covid is a hoax, Trump won the election, Vaccines kill you, Hospitals aren't actually full of Covid patients, Aircraft contrails are actually chemicals being sprayed on us to keep us all compliant, Evolution is bullshit, The Earth is flat and Bigsbys look good.
I do worry that perhaps the number of conspiracy theorists hasn't actually changed - all that's happened is the invention of social media and the internet has allowed them to become more visible. However, that's nowhere near as worrying as the thought that, like a 'stupidity virus', the more it appears, the faster it spreads. In other words, otherwise compliant - but simple, folk who would normally accept the word of experts on any subject are now buying into the conspiracies they read about on Facebook etc and in turn, start spreading them.
It's becoming more prevalent - but where does it end ?
Are we going to one day see Professor Erik von Klinkenschnappel PhD, Director of the Oceanographic Institute of Lichtenstein on Newsnight having to debate the effects of changes in ocean currents on aquatic life with Dave Spunge from Bootle who says "It's all a load of bollocks" ?
How can we stop this insanity ? How can we stop people thinking that their opinions are just as valid as an expert's ?
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
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It would've been a lot harder for trump to get away with his idiocy without SM, but we also had fascists who used rhetoric to rouse the mob before SM. I guess it makes it easier to propagate stupid ideas, but I'm less sure if it makes the spread further.
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
My feedback thread is here.
Sure, people are entitled to their opinion but they are not entitled to their facts, and to distinguish between the 2, takes intelligence and education.
The prime example is that guy during the Pizza gate who attacked a pizza parlour to free children in the basement. Apparently, Clinton was trafficking children. Instead of thinking "that's most likely to be a lie, he took it as 100% fact. Plus there was no basement at all in the building.
I feel, and this is my opinion is that the key part of Higher Education is the skill to self-analysis, the skill to look at a piece of article and make a judgment call on whether this is probably a lie, may be a lie or truth. It is good to be skeptical but it is dangerous to be skeptical about eveyrthing. At university, you are taught, or you learn what source of information is reliable and what isn't, by the simple exercise of writing an essay. So when Trump says "He read a report that the election was stolen". The next question is "What report?" and "show me this report".
A lot of people now don't do that, or just now they are more vocal.
They take a 1 liner and accept it as fact.
OK???
The rise of social media is undoubtedly at the core of it, and it acts as a catalyst like nothing else before it.
Many years ago I had a Sunday morning job in a local deli. One of our regular customers who claimed that she was an illegitimate daughter of one of the royals. She always had a shopping bag with "You visiting monarch" on it and was forever muttering "this would happen if Edward was on the throne". Back in the mid 70s she was a local eccentric, harmless but annoying. These days there would be websites, podcasts and who knows what else taking her story out of Hendon and into the wider world.
I would strongly urge anyone interested in this to read David Aaronovitch's book "Voodoo Histories" which is an excellent book on conspiracy theories.
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
My feedback thread is here.
People in N Korea genuinely believe that they are better off than most of the rest of the world
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It is very frustrating.
I find it difficult to talk about without feeling that I am being snobbily arrogant. Particularly as I am not scientifically skilled, or know a huge amount about politics and economics. But I do think that common sense should prevail, which is often sadly lacking.
We can also conflate genuine concerns or thoughts with conspiracy theories - eg my wife has spent many years removing mercury that she historically took on board via tooth fillings and medication. For this reason she may decide not to have the covid vaccination (if she elects that it contains chemicals she wishes to avoid). This doesn't mean she is promoting others do the same, however could be seen as a fruitcake theory.
As for the internet and social media, yes it is able to misinform the people that do not know any better and also help them rally their misguided beliefs and troops.
Goebbels really maximised the study and use of propoganda & communications to promote the Nazi party in the 1930s - translate that ideology to now and the internet is a valuable and worrying tool. Greed and consumerisim do not help, and also play into the right wing's carrot and stick policy.
I do not know what the solution is - other than to try and promote generosity and good spirit (and stand up to the bullys).
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that"
But I'm sure I'm guilty of passing on rumours because they seem plausible, but without checking the detail. Especially if they confirm my beliefs about how terrible the bad guys are... And once nonsense goes viral, the truth never really catches up.
I mean if they think they know more on a subject because of that. There is no point even discussing about it.
The really sad part is they don't see the problem with what they are doing and how flawed it is.
Really stupid and uneducated people don’t actually realise how dumb they are:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Cue falling for pseudo-science bullshit on Youtube / Facebook / twitter / etc.
If you never got to the point of understanding how science works and learned reasoning then you simply are not equipped with the tools to debunk this online nonsense.
This has (probably) always happened but the effect was localised until recently – so if idiots bought a mono rail they did it locally. Now they go online to brag about it for all to see
They literally can’t digest facts.
Education is one thing but a lot of the people at the Capitol incident tilting at windmills seemed to be business owners, presumably reasonably well educated.
This is a great essay about (amongst other things) how tribes can pass by each other existing in essentially the same location but in parallel universes:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/
I'm also always shocked at how quickly discussions deteriorate these days, even round here. Deeply held beliefs or perceptions of reality aren't going to be abandoned at the drop of a hat, if you want to bring someone round to your way of thinking it's maybe worth keeping it civil for a while longer.