this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
915 points (92.4% liked)
Memes
45719 readers
1057 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Both sides can be misinformed but, it doesn't mean you need to react negatively to someone else's viewpoint. If you disagree there's nothing wrong with saying "I disagree because I think that....." or "I've read that...." and you don't have to call the other person a nasty derogatory name.
You‘re new here, right? Keep that positive attitude as long as you can.
Actually I wrote that because I am not new to this stuff at all. Just kind of fed up with always getting called names just because sometimes I post things that arent the most popular view or are different ways of looking at things. I'm OK with people saying "I don't agree" if they can explain why without also adding "you idiot" or "you fucking idiot" onto the end. I try to be civil, but am always surprised how people respond with uncalled for name calling.
You're right. There is zero benefit to being an asshole, especially for the person being an asshole. Ego makes it tempting though.
I can see where it's not just tempting but seems necessary sometimes, but all you're gonna do is bait the person into a useless bout of name calling back and forth.
If you've previously identified one side as consisting of pathological liars, it's best to ignore whatever they say because the more you hear from them, the more likely you are to accidently believe one of their lies. It takes a lot of vigilance to listen to a bunch of plausibly-true statements without misremembering some of them as being true.
99% of us just think whatever our friends think. Is that an argument for or against what we're thinking?
We automatically choose our friends based on similar taste, opinions and humour so it's not surprising that these things match up.
Thanks for your analysis doctor. But what about the question?
Well I think you're right, but I hope people have more brains to than to simply go along with what their friends think. I'm very anti-religious, but have close friends who are deeply religious. We just stay off the topic. I think people choose to hang with others who think the way they do most of the time. That doesn't prove anybody right, it just proves we like to congregate with those whose opinions are the same as ours.
I think it might speak against the idea. Because there is a strong probability that it is chosen, not because evidence/logic/etc leads to it, but because it is popular with one's friends. Not saying it's necessarily so, but there's a strong probability.
(Which would lead to "truth can only be gotten from antisocial weirdos". Which is kinda bleak I guess.)
But yes. I think that the 99% of people get their whole reality from consensus. No actual independent thinking except in the details. And there is also a vast hostility to the strange there. Maybe that's "tribalism".
That's true where I live in mormon country, USA. People are told what to think by the church, and they also are instructed who to vote for by the church. The Mormons often say, " my church does my thinking for me." I guess it relieves people of the responsibility of having to make choices for themselves. That to me is much bleaker than truth being obtained from weirdos.
Which I think it correct. It takes a "weirdo" to be either crazy or brave enough to say anything that goes against the popular viewpoint. Most people can handle almost anything better than they can handle being unpopular or called weird.
It's funny. People I know who are religious. They may have a head full of scripture but dogmatism isn't as ubiquitous as you might think. And often behind that scriptural thinking is a proper humility. An understanding that these eyes and this brain are just a speck. A dot of illumination in a vast night. Fine modern scientific and/or theological theories notwithstanding.
The popular arrogance, otoh, is childish. Smug certainty that you have truth in hand. I find that hard to swallow.
Drugs and meditation are the best cure for it as far as I can tell.
I like meditation a lot.