Yes, that's terrible, but we already know that ignorant, misled, and mentally deficient people exist. What now? What do we do with this information, as individuals, as a society?
Yes, that's terrible, but we already know that ignorant, misled, and mentally deficient people exist. What now? What do we do with this information, as individuals, as a society?
Yes, but now we know there are more of them than we thought: That's half the population who are vulnerable to conspiracy theories to varying degrees. It's not a lunatic fringe when it's...
we already know that ignorant, misled, and mentally deficient people exist.
Yes, but now we know there are more of them than we thought:
Researchers found that approximately 50 per cent of this population showed little evidence of conspiracy thinking, while 25 per cent showed a degree of endorsement, 15 per cent showed a consistent pattern of endorsement, and 10 per cent had very high levels of endorsement.
That's half the population who are vulnerable to conspiracy theories to varying degrees. It's not a lunatic fringe when it's potentially half the population.
“Such ideas were associated with paranoia, general vaccination conspiracy beliefs, climate change conspiracy belief, a conspiracy mentality, and distrust in institutions and professions,” the scientists wrote in the journal Psychological Medicine.
What you do with this information is fix education and improve trust.
Why don't people believe the government? Why do people fall for false beliefs? Why do they find comfort in conspiracies?
That's where the solution lies. Make people feel safe. Inform people about science and the scientific method. And teach them critical thinking skills.
Both our government and the American government have been pumping out propaganda for the past few months, both positive and negative. Although arguably America's has been much more negative....
Both our government and the American government have been pumping out propaganda for the past few months, both positive and negative. Although arguably America's has been much more negative. Furthermore, our Prime Minister has a reputation for being a lair and or distorter of truth. It would be nice if it were so simple as to just 'believe the government', but as it is we don't always feel safe under them and until the government gives the public good reason to trust them it makes sense that people are believing conspiracy theories like these.
To be clear, I don't personally believe any of these conspiracies but I do understand how its very easy not to trust the government.
I agree but first we need to run that government right? Conservatives/right-populists know they can't fix society's problems or else society (who voted for them based on those problems) will...
I agree but first we need to run that government right? Conservatives/right-populists know they can't fix society's problems or else society (who voted for them based on those problems) will abandon them right? What about the media outlets backing these populists in order to keep them friendly and their audiences isolated?
I did mention more than just the government. That's not the only problem. If we had a more educated population, able to think clearly, they might vote for better politicians to be in their...
I did mention more than just the government. That's not the only problem. If we had a more educated population, able to think clearly, they might vote for better politicians to be in their governments, and they might hold their governments more accountable.
True, but to start we need to elect a government concerned with giving said education before actually doing anything. The conservatives don't care so (first and foremost) how do we get a leftist...
True, but to start we need to elect a government concerned with giving said education before actually doing anything. The conservatives don't care so (first and foremost) how do we get a leftist government elected then?
Yes, it's an existential dread/contemplation type song, since we have so many problems and we know how to fix them but we have no idea how you get the power required to do so. We know what's...
Did you mean to link a soundtrack video?
Yes, it's an existential dread/contemplation type song, since we have so many problems and we know how to fix them but we have no idea how you get the power required to do so. We know what's wrong, know how to fix but we have no idea how to get the political power to actually do anything.
And so we end up just sitting back and dreading the future since we have no ability to actually do anything to fix it, for which this song is really good.
Tl;dr: The impression I get from your comment is mostly one of since we have no idea how to get the power to fix our problems, we'll most likely just sit back and watch things get worse regardless, for which this song is a great background piece.
Okay. I don't communicate through music, so I didn't get this. If that's what you take from it, that's okay. For me, it was a simple admission of ignorance. I do not know how to guarantee any...
Yes, it's an existential dread/contemplation type song
Okay. I don't communicate through music, so I didn't get this.
The impression I get from your comment is mostly one of since we have no idea how to get the power to fix our problems, we'll most likely just sit back and watch things get worse regardless,
If that's what you take from it, that's okay.
For me, it was a simple admission of ignorance. I do not know how to guarantee any desired outcome of an election.
However, that does not mean I think we don't have the power to fix our problems. We do have the power to influence elections. That's why I spent a few years working for a political party.
During my time working for the political party, I learned something interesting. The party analysed the vote at individual voting booths across the country. They correlated the results with which booths had party volunteers handing out pamphlets on voting day and which booths did not have volunteers. The vote for our party was a couple of percentage points higher at booths with volunteers.
I have volunteered at booths on election days, handing out pamphlets, for most elections across the past decade. So, I know I have influenced the outcome of elections.
Our local public broadcaster ran political surveys for the past few elections, and matched people's answers to the various political parties' manifestos. A lot of people don't agree with the party they vote for; they just vote for the same party they've always voted for. In general, people's actual political opinions are a step left of the party they vote for (people who vote for the centre-right party actually have centre-left opinions; people who vote for the centre-left party actually have left-wing opinions). If people voted for the party that truly agrees with what they want, rather than the party they habitually vote for, the outcome of elections would be very different.
So, we need to educate people about their opinions and the political parties' opinions.
Just because I don't know how to guarantee the outcome of an election, that doesn't mean I feel like I have no power to influence the outcome of an election. And if enough people worked to influence the outcome of elections, maybe we'd have the result we want.
Wow. As someone who doesn't really believe in activism this is pretty comforting/hopeful. Damn. The fact that even this works against the left to some extent is damning. I wouldn't be surprised on...
During my time working for the political party, I learned something interesting. The party analysed the vote at individual voting booths across the country. They correlated the results with which booths had party volunteers handing out pamphlets on voting day and which booths did not have volunteers. The vote for our party was a couple of percentage points higher at booths with volunteers.
Wow. As someone who doesn't really believe in activism this is pretty comforting/hopeful.
A lot of people don't agree with the party they vote for; they just vote for the same party they've always voted for. In general, people's actual political opinions are a step left of the party they vote for (people who vote for the centre-right party actually have centre-left opinions; people who vote for the centre-left party actually have left-wing opinions). If people voted for the party that truly agrees with what they want, rather than the party they habitually vote for, the outcome of elections would be very different.
Damn. The fact that even this works against the left to some extent is damning. I wouldn't be surprised on people not knowing what their party stands for. Over here in Brazil this has the odd side-effect of making several different political parties have the same vaguely center right political positions, called the 'centrão' (center+superlative), and also has the effect of the runner-up parties always being a guess at best.
I don't consider handing out pamphlets on election day to be "activism", but I suppose it is to someone who doesn't believe in activism. Activism works. Things don't change because people sit down...
As someone who doesn't really believe in activism this is pretty comforting/hopeful.
I don't consider handing out pamphlets on election day to be "activism", but I suppose it is to someone who doesn't believe in activism.
Yes, that's terrible, but we already know that ignorant, misled, and mentally deficient people exist. What now? What do we do with this information, as individuals, as a society?
Yes, but now we know there are more of them than we thought:
That's half the population who are vulnerable to conspiracy theories to varying degrees. It's not a lunatic fringe when it's potentially half the population.
What you do with this information is fix education and improve trust.
Why don't people believe the government? Why do people fall for false beliefs? Why do they find comfort in conspiracies?
That's where the solution lies. Make people feel safe. Inform people about science and the scientific method. And teach them critical thinking skills.
Both our government and the American government have been pumping out propaganda for the past few months, both positive and negative. Although arguably America's has been much more negative. Furthermore, our Prime Minister has a reputation for being a lair and or distorter of truth. It would be nice if it were so simple as to just 'believe the government', but as it is we don't always feel safe under them and until the government gives the public good reason to trust them it makes sense that people are believing conspiracy theories like these.
To be clear, I don't personally believe any of these conspiracies but I do understand how its very easy not to trust the government.
I agree but first we need to run that government right? Conservatives/right-populists know they can't fix society's problems or else society (who voted for them based on those problems) will abandon them right? What about the media outlets backing these populists in order to keep them friendly and their audiences isolated?
I did mention more than just the government. That's not the only problem. If we had a more educated population, able to think clearly, they might vote for better politicians to be in their governments, and they might hold their governments more accountable.
We need to start by educating people properly.
True, but to start we need to elect a government concerned with giving said education before actually doing anything. The conservatives don't care so (first and foremost) how do we get a leftist government elected then?
I don't know.
:l...
Did you mean to link a soundtrack video, or were you trying to link something else?
Yes, it's an existential dread/contemplation type song, since we have so many problems and we know how to fix them but we have no idea how you get the power required to do so. We know what's wrong, know how to fix but we have no idea how to get the political power to actually do anything.
And so we end up just sitting back and dreading the future since we have no ability to actually do anything to fix it, for which this song is really good.
Tl;dr: The impression I get from your comment is mostly one of since we have no idea how to get the power to fix our problems, we'll most likely just sit back and watch things get worse regardless, for which this song is a great background piece.
Okay. I don't communicate through music, so I didn't get this.
If that's what you take from it, that's okay.
For me, it was a simple admission of ignorance. I do not know how to guarantee any desired outcome of an election.
However, that does not mean I think we don't have the power to fix our problems. We do have the power to influence elections. That's why I spent a few years working for a political party.
During my time working for the political party, I learned something interesting. The party analysed the vote at individual voting booths across the country. They correlated the results with which booths had party volunteers handing out pamphlets on voting day and which booths did not have volunteers. The vote for our party was a couple of percentage points higher at booths with volunteers.
I have volunteered at booths on election days, handing out pamphlets, for most elections across the past decade. So, I know I have influenced the outcome of elections.
Our local public broadcaster ran political surveys for the past few elections, and matched people's answers to the various political parties' manifestos. A lot of people don't agree with the party they vote for; they just vote for the same party they've always voted for. In general, people's actual political opinions are a step left of the party they vote for (people who vote for the centre-right party actually have centre-left opinions; people who vote for the centre-left party actually have left-wing opinions). If people voted for the party that truly agrees with what they want, rather than the party they habitually vote for, the outcome of elections would be very different.
So, we need to educate people about their opinions and the political parties' opinions.
Just because I don't know how to guarantee the outcome of an election, that doesn't mean I feel like I have no power to influence the outcome of an election. And if enough people worked to influence the outcome of elections, maybe we'd have the result we want.
People need to get more involved in politics.
Wow. As someone who doesn't really believe in activism this is pretty comforting/hopeful.
Damn. The fact that even this works against the left to some extent is damning. I wouldn't be surprised on people not knowing what their party stands for. Over here in Brazil this has the odd side-effect of making several different political parties have the same vaguely center right political positions, called the 'centrão' (center+superlative), and also has the effect of the runner-up parties always being a guess at best.
I don't consider handing out pamphlets on election day to be "activism", but I suppose it is to someone who doesn't believe in activism.
Activism works. Things don't change because people sit down and do nothing. The only way to change things - the only way things have ever changed - is when people do something. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."