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I get my flu vaccine every year. That said, I agree with Zuck. I want to live in a world where we’re forced to teach our kids critical thinking skills than in

I get my flu vaccine every year. That said, I agree with Zuck. I want to live in a world where we’re forced to teach our kids critical thinking skills than in a world that relies on controlling the flow of information. Let’s have articles about making critical thinking a required school class as is with English, math, US history, etc. Than Zuck is not blocking this or that.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Most people are capable of critical thinking, but that's really not the issue. The issue is the slow chipping away at people's ideas, beliefs, political alignments, caused by the rapid fire, high volume volley of headlines aimed at people. For critical thinking, you first need to actually have an opinion and be invested in a subject. If you're not interested in vaccines but keep getting chips to the tune of "vaccines are bad", "vaxxines cause this or that", slowly your opinion will change. If you zoom in to the individual then sure, critical thinking is important. If you zoom out to a society though, it doesn't really matter anymore. There are forces in play that know exactly what they're doing. They don't need to be right, they just need to chip away at people's beliefs and opinions. And it's working; the US is an oligarchy run by rich nazis and headed by an ignorant scapegoat, the UK is leaving Europe and will be left poor, chaotic and vulnerable. Ukraine is a dictatorship. Russia, China and the US are freely suppressing or killing dissenters and putting people into concentration camps. And the world shrugs because what can they do? The powers that be are stuck in their status-quo; can't sanction the US or China because of trade deals; can't go against Russia because they'll help us win the elections. The list goes on. Sorry, this turned into a bit of a rant that veered way off topic. Tl;dr critical thinking is not the problem, worldwide campaigns are, hundreds of impressions a year over multiple years are slowly influencing people.
nickfromseattle 6y ago
Ideologically, I agree. Reality doesn't look too great though. >I want to live in a world where we’re forced to teach our kids critical thinking skills than in a world that relies on controlling the flow of information. Technology has evolved faster than our ability to create a society of critical thinkers. >Let’s have articles about making critical thinking a required school class as is with English, math, US history, etc. Than Zuck is not blocking this or that. Education seems to vary state by state, for example Texas elected to eliminate classes that teach critical thinking. "We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."[0] So if Americans are generally lacking critical thinking skills, and for various reasons those skills will never be taught or learned, do you still want to let propaganda and fake news run unabated? [0] https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2012/06/texas_gop_no_more_critical_thinking.html https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2012/06/texas...
dkobia 6y ago
Attractive and somewhat lazy ideological opinion. The world is so complicated and the group most susceptible to conspiracy theories in most cases also happens to have the least access to the type of education that prioritizes critical thinking.
- daenz 6y ago
  Then we should prioritize teaching critical thinking, and not what to think.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

Most people are capable of critical thinking, but that's really not the issue. The issue is the slow chipping away at people's ideas, beliefs, political alignments, caused by the rapid fire, high volume volley of headlines aimed at people. For critical thinking, you first need to actually have an opinion and be invested in a subject. If you're not interested in vaccines but keep getting chips to the tune of "vaccines are bad", "vaxxines cause this or that", slowly your opinion will change. If you zoom in to the individual then sure, critical thinking is important. If you zoom out to a society though, it doesn't really matter anymore. There are forces in play that know exactly what they're doing. They don't need to be right, they just need to chip away at people's beliefs and opinions. And it's working; the US is an oligarchy run by rich nazis and headed by an ignorant scapegoat, the UK is leaving Europe and will be left poor, chaotic and vulnerable. Ukraine is a dictatorship. Russia, China and the US are freely suppressing or killing dissenters and putting people into concentration camps. And the world shrugs because what can they do? The powers that be are stuck in their status-quo; can't sanction the US or China because of trade deals; can't go against Russia because they'll help us win the elections. The list goes on. Sorry, this turned into a bit of a rant that veered way off topic. Tl;dr critical thinking is not the problem, worldwide campaigns are, hundreds of impressions a year over multiple years are slowly influencing people.

nickfromseattle 6y ago

Ideologically, I agree. Reality doesn't look too great though. >I want to live in a world where we’re forced to teach our kids critical thinking skills than in a world that relies on controlling the flow of information. Technology has evolved faster than our ability to create a society of critical thinkers. >Let’s have articles about making critical thinking a required school class as is with English, math, US history, etc. Than Zuck is not blocking this or that. Education seems to vary state by state, for example Texas elected to eliminate classes that teach critical thinking. "We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."[0] So if Americans are generally lacking critical thinking skills, and for various reasons those skills will never be taught or learned, do you still want to let propaganda and fake news run unabated? [0] https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2012/06/texas_gop_no_more_critical_thinking.html https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2012/06/texas...

dkobia 6y ago

Attractive and somewhat lazy ideological opinion. The world is so complicated and the group most susceptible to conspiracy theories in most cases also happens to have the least access to the type of education that prioritizes critical thinking.

daenz 6y ago
Then we should prioritize teaching critical thinking, and not what to think.