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The key to understanding these and many other flagrantly irrational "beliefs" is that these things are believed for social or political reasons not simply ratio
by api 7y ago
The key to understanding these and many other flagrantly irrational "beliefs" is that these things are believed for social or political reasons not simply rational ones.
There is an interview floating around with a flat Earth dude saying exactly this: that even if he were convinced the Earth were round he would stick with it because they have a community.
Humans are not rational robots. We are hyper-social emotional beings. The classical wire monkey experiment shows that primates will prioritize affection over food to the point of near starvation. It's not much of a leap to consider that humans may also prioritize affection over truth to the point of folly.
We see circumstantial evidence of this constantly. Most people would rather be wrong and have friends than right and alone.
If rational ideas look like they are failing, perhaps it's because we have failed to construct positive and lasting communities around them. If anything it's the opposite: the rational worldview is linked culturally to isolating sterile social orders with sterile objectives like GDP maximization or abstract political goals. These may be rational but they are not human.
If the rational can't rationalize community and culture we will continue to see a popular flight from reason.
- GVIrish 7y agoI think some people believe in irrational things so that they can conform with their in-group, but I there are a number of emotional reasons people believe in irrational conspiracies. -Desire to be nonconformist -Desire to feel intellectually superior by 'knowing something others don't' -Mistrust in authority -Fear of accepting a truth that will upend their understanding or the world -Fear (or refusal) of accepting a truth that upends their place in the world -Outright mental illness One thing I think the internet and social media does is that it allows people with singular causes of irrational beliefs to find others like them and that in turn reinforces their irrational beliefs. Not to mention that they can easily find misinformation on the internet that reinforces them.
- api 7y agoThe desire to be noncomformant or know secrets is a desire for a small social in group that is relatable vs belonging to the alienating mass. This is basically why cults exist. The motive is fundamentally social. Search for Dunbar's number, the maximum "social horizon" size for most humans.
- Psyladine 7y ago>The key to understanding these and many other flagrantly irrational "beliefs" is that these things are believed for social or political reasons not simply rational ones. Memetic immune disorder, if you aren't already familiar, is in agreement with this explanation.