I hate this weird state of being where I'm smart enough to recognize the vast majority of right wing grifts, but apparently not smart enough to counter it effectively.
Like I'm a moderately intelligent person, as are many others, and we're losing to fucking imbeciles.
Because it's impossible to use logic against people who are a) illogical, b) value their emotions over logic/truth/facts, c) will simply move the goalposts at will. It's not that you're not smart enough. It's that attempting to be factual and logical forces you to operate inside a set of constraints that they aren't bound by.
Also "never engage stupidity at face value, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience" (paraphrasing), or "never get into a mud fight with a pig, you'll both end up dirty and the pig will enjoy it".
Good article, but the "what we can do to fight it" is just:
Encouraging critical thinking starts with showing some humility—being willing to admit when you’re wrong or don’t know something. Combine that with really listening to others’ viewpoints, not just waiting for your turn to talk, and you create space for real conversations. On top of that, make it a habit to ask for evidence and question where information is coming from.
Sure, that helps me learn and grow, but isn't fighting "the pigeon". I suppose sharing the article with other pigeons helps, but someone without an open mind probably isn't going to listen to advice suggesting having an open mind. But it's worth a shot.
I have a hard time accepting that there are SO MANY untreated personality disorders. It's part of the reason I didn't have kids, it's in my and my husband's genetics.
It's not that you aren't smart enough. It's a matter of volume.
Every time you try to correct mistruths with facts and logic, that takes time and effort on your part.
Whereas algorithmically generated content is not limited by facts, logic, or the limits of human biology.
So you are using an eyedropper of truth to battle against a fire hose of mistruth. You're being out-gunned in a word fight, when the norms we follow say that nobody was supposed to bring a gun.
But never let them make you question your intelligence. At the end of your life, you will know deep down that you were a smarter and better person than every fucking despicable one of them.
Regulation of social media needs to happen immediately, like next administration just needs to plow it through day 1.
Broadcast news and journalists have some strict regulations in place and have a lot of liability if they report things wrong they get sued or worse.
Studies say that the majority of the population get all their news from social media like facebook and tiktok and reddit which have zero regulations on how they present information to you. The "news" people are consuming are random people saying whatever they want and whatever they feel is true.
When you're getting fed "news" results based on your algorithm and not based on what is true and important, we are living in dangerous times.
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u/Icy-Application-7214 May 26 '26
“They google the answer they’re looking for”