In my life, I went through a period of time, perhaps 20 years, where information that contradicted my own opinion on a topic got immediately discarded. I haven’t been that person in over 20 years. Some topics were harder to break through than others. At this point, I consider myself a scientist of my brain. If something contradicts my beliefs, and it’s factual, I do my best to see if/why my thinking is wrong. I notice many, many here do not do the same, and I’m wondering why? Knowledge is power, correct? We have a thread on how Americans are getting dumber. This is part of the reason why. Too many people feel like they’ve nothing left to learn. A conversation on PF A: John Doe thinks all ______ are ______ and this is why team other is ****. B: Here’s a link proving that your claim is completely untrue. B gets ignored. Next thread A: John Doe thinks all ______ are ______ and this is why team other is ****. B: Here’s a link proving that your claim is completely untrue. The saddest part is that you likely don’t know who you are. You self aware centrists know who you are. It doesn’t mean wishy-washy, it means having opinions that don’t follow party lines. Gay people can have right leaning opinions , and gun owners can be lefty.
An Introductory course in Logic should be a staple in the high school curriculum. The course would be valuable in cultivating critical thinking skills. “
never happen. "that would be indoctrinatin' our chil dren. teach 'em readin' an' writen' an' we'll decide what else they need to know.
I suspect that this is partially due to the role that forums like these play in people's lives. Despite it's appearance on the surface, this forum and others are not places for objective logical conversations. They are a place to find like-minded individuals and band together against whomever your group sees as a common ideological foe. It's about having a place to reinforce your own cognitive dissonance, your biases, and to find individuals who can make arguments that you favor perhaps better than you can which you can then take and use in other places. Emotion is involved too. People use forums like these to vent, often in the form of sharply worded insults against ideological foes. These are the reasons that the usual suspects on both sides of the aisle here almost never change their tune. They're not here to learn a new tune, they're here to play the same tune with others who like the song.
Very nicely put. Thanks, and likely very true. I'm so different from where I was 25 years ago when I first started on forums. I'm always learning, so it's confusing to me that some people have no desire to learn.
Once upon a time it WAS taught in high school and college. For the last several years CRT and such nonsense has been substituted. Critical thinking is strongly discouraged by omnipresent government propaganda. Students are encouraged to think with the herd and ask no questions. Indeed, asking questions is portrayed as conspiracy theory.
What you are describing is the post-truth era. One in which reality no longer matters, and what the people you describe believe is not determined by facts, but by who tells them what they WANT to hear. Lies are a very powerful communication tool. And I genuinely believe that this gives the right a huge advantage. Most right-wingers have grown accustomed to lies. If a Republican politician tells an obvious lie, the base is quick to pick it up and spread it to the world. They don't care when the lie is exposed. They just sit there eagerly waiting for the next lie they can spread. If a Democratic politician lies, the base starts distrusting them. This give Republicans a huge advantage especially with gullible independents. They just need to time the lie right so it is still effective during important moments like the elections. Forget the fact that this looks one-sided. Sometimes reality is one-sided. And what I want to do is show examples. What I say is easily verifiable by counting the number of lies in this forum that are now debunked, but where effective at the right time. That Hillary broke the law (she was exonerated AFTER the elections), that the Durham investigation would prove Biden committed some crime (it was closed with barely a sound), that the 2020 election was stolen (I don't think this has any effect on independents anymore, but it did help Trump carry out his insurrection attempt), ... and on and on..... In this election cycle, the lie is that Biden broke the economy. The economy has slowed down, but it's not due to ANYTHING Biden or the Democrats did or failed to do. I say all this as examples of how the right can twist these things by simply lying. Politicians who are Democrats can't normally do that. Not that they haven't tried. But, when they do, even their OWN base turns against them. Evidence and facts are useless in this environment...
oh, bullshit. when logic was taught in lower grades conservatives called it "new math" and had the same kind of conniption fit we've seen over common core and critical race theory and sel.
