cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/2313987
I have noticed that alot of people think the majority of people are stupid based on the things they read online or maybe even experience in real life but I think that there is better explanation than just assuming people are stupid.
A common example people bring up to show that other people are stupid is mentioning how a lot of people believe in conspiracy theories ( such as Qanon or Flat earth) and point out how they are objectively false therefore the people that believe it are stupid.
However when you examine these beliefs in more depth there is obviously some amount of internal logic that is used to justify these beliefs to themselves and others in the group.
You can go to flat earthers forum and they can give huge amounts of “evidence” about how light shouldn’t be visible after 50 kms if the earth was round or how in Qanon there are probably people who have whole boards detailed with connections between how and where democrats participate in satanic rituals but my point is that all conspiracy theories tend to form one cohesive narrative like a collective story that are building.
To be able to make a story that is this detailed it definitely required some amount of forethought and reasoning to make it so everyone in the group reaches the same collective understanding.
This then might lead you to ask why are people susceptible to these ideas and what makes them stick. Well I think that it boils down to three different things.
- Our collective feeling that things aren’t going well
- Our general distrust in current authorities
- Our collective belief that an authority is good/necessary
When you look at how people tend to be influenced into accepting these beliefs it also follows this same general pattern.
- People feel that some part of their life isn’t going well and that current institutions aren’t helping them anymore.
- A guru/influencer shows up and offers advice (sometimes good advice) to fix their problem
- People then start trusting these gurus/influencers and seeing them as authorities
- Finally these people take what these gurus/influencers say at face value and build internal lore for their community that makes sense to them given that they accept what the new authority says as fact.
If you want to tackle the root of what makes people susceptible to these ideas you have to tackle those three things or else people will fall into those same traps just with different authorities saying different things.
Also as a semi-related point there are a million and one things that an individual can choose to focus on and become knowledgable about so whilst some people spend that mental capacity on understanding tech or politics others spend that mental capacity on flat earth theory or UFOs.
Main point:
So all of this is to say I think that people aren’t stupid and that we should not treat them as they are such instead if we understand that they are capable of complex reason but they are starting with different base knowledge it’ll be easier to empathize with others. Also if we want society to be less susceptible to this we need to fix one or all of the three things I mentioned that makes us susceptible.
I’m sorry, but if you are a person who looks at all verifiable evidence in front of you and says “Nope, I don’t buy it” because those things are hard to face/think about (e.g. climate change) and it’s easier to fall back on what you previously believed, but I’m genuinely sorry, you’re a real fuckin idiot.
Stupidity comes down to facing reality, and not accepting it. If you really think you can substitute your own fantasy in place of reality, and as long as you keep up the lie, no one can tell you it’s not true, you’re literally hurting yourself in your confusion.
Being able to accept change in the face of new information and the humility to understand that you don’t can’t and won’t ever know everything are what leads to knowledge.
EDIT: I speak as someone who feels similarly to you in respect to some of these conspiracy theories. It’s very valid for people to not trust certain authorities (the black community rightfully distrusts police, for example), but I regularly see people ruin themselves from drowning in cynicism instead of using critical thinking to decide “Sometimes I can’t trust this authority, but that doesn’t mean I can’t trust everything from them.” Like when I read the New York Times, I’m well aware it is a news organization who are aiming to sell to a readership with far more disposable income than I do, and that I can’t always trust their politics on certain issues such as Israel, but that doesn’t mean everything they produce is trollop I can’t trust. NYT produces tons of solid reporting, but I have to use critical thinking to approach it and not just take it at face value. A lot of people just drop it as a source entirely and start trusting unhinged Facebook rants with no evidence.
Your point about choosing to trust people/organizations selectively is a good insight because to do that you have to have reasons on why you can trust instead of blindly trusting in certain sources (which is what authority in practice makes people do). Part of critical thinking actually helps with that. It is just that critical thinking isn’t at the forefront of what we teach people or even how we communicate with others.
Edit: Also sometimes they don’t trust that information so they won’t change their beliefs just because you present them with the correct information.
I think the main example of this that hit home for me was during COVID.
“The CDC lied to us about masks and masking, so why should we trust them.”
I don’t disagree, I don’t think the CDC lying about masking to help keep enough N95s for nurses was entirely helpful. I do understand that they were technically right to lie about it, because COVID did cause significant hoarding in the US populace. They were right to expect people to hoard them, and then have the frontline workers who need access most lose access to N95s.
I am more frustrated by political decisions by the CDC, like when they dropped the 14 day window and said “get your asses back to work after five days, the economy can’t take us taking this disease seriously anymore.” It really felt like they were throwing the working class to the wolves because making money for the rich was more important than working class lives. “Human capital stock” and all.
That doesn’t mean I never trust anything from the CDC ever again, but it does make me highly skeptical of certain decisions they make. It bothered me deeply that a lot of people take things like that as a reason to never trust them again, instead of accepting that they’re a government agency full of regular ass people who are just trying to navigate a worldwide pandemic just as much as we are. They’re human, they’re fallible, it’s not a fucking conspiracy, it’s mistakes or unpalatable decisions. In other words, Hanlon’s razor.
I find the point about stupidity being facing and accepting reality funny and a bit ironic, because a person I consider to be fairly intelligent (Adam Savage) is the same person who once coined the phrase, “I reject your reality and substitute my own.”
Do you believe that sentiment actually held by many, or most smart people?
Do you really believe he truly rejects reality and makes up his own?
Do you realize this could be a joke?
PS: I realize you may not be entirely serious about this too lol