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Am USer. I have no explanation, but I can assure you that being up close to this shit doesn’t help it make any more sense. I come from a conservative white family in a mostly white area, and sure I can see how people get into that insular world and are conditioned to reject rational inquiry, but at the same time we live in the information age, people!
The problem is that there is too much information. And information doesn't come with a disclaimer of whether it's fact, opinion, conspiracy, or otherwise batshit.
We have passed the age of information, we have entered the age of misinformation.
Upvoted with a frown of agreement on my face.
Or went back to it? I think there was only a short period of time in human's existence when only the intellectual elite could reach the public with the new technologies because it was too complicated or pricey for the common people. Now we're back to bar-room level of information quality.
/disagree
There used to be something called The Fourth Estate (of Government). Used to be.
Was that press accessible for the average people at that time? Everybody being able to read is fairly recent too.
News organzations should not be allowed to express opinions, but only recite news.
Did people think more critically before? Or maybe there was limited dissemination in the past? Crazy BS maybe didn't travel as far?
I'd like to think we could differentiate between fact, opinion, and BS more in the past, but that's probably not true.
I think learning everything about the world from the random unqualified people around you is exactly how most people in history have done it. As long as it’s a person you like and they say it with confidence, it will probably stick.
But now it is easier to see that process happening and avoid it. It’s also easier to locate authoritative sources of information.
Except… even though this works for many of us, it paradoxically makes the problem WORSE for a huge number of people. We have easier access to all the opinions out there, but that means any given shitty opinion has the potential to reach millions rather than somebody’s social circle.
I agree. What I have no idea about these days is how to solve this.
It might be a 'there is no solution' type problem, but it would be nice if more people and organizations as a whole recognized this issue.
Maybe publishing questionable information over a long period of time or our lack of holding orgs and individuals accountable contributed. I'd think it hard to legislate accountability without reducing freedom or speech, press, and opinion (that isn't toxic, but that's subjective and part of the problem isn't it).
The Younger generations do at least.