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Information Won't Change Anyone's Mind
- perl4ever 5y agoAlbert Einstein as quoted by Werner Heisenberg: "Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed." His argument was like this: "Observation means that we construct some connection between a phenomenon and our realization of the phenomenon. There is something happening in the atom, the light is emitted, the light hits the photographic plate, we see the photographic plate and so on and so on. In this whole course of events between the atom and your eye and your consciousness you must assume that everything works as in the old physics. If you would change the theory concerning this sequence of events then of course the observation would be altered."
- smackeyacky 5y agoThere is an old adage that goes something like "never argue with an idiot, they will only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience". It used to make me laugh but watching online discussion from usenet through to reddit has turned it to tragedy. Every heated discussion involves at least one of the parties being wilfully ignorant. The tribal affiliations of political discussion (most obviously american politics) have made discussion impossible. Worse still, the online discussion norms of ignoring decorum, of being impolite and dismissive are now normalised in public discourse. The best thing to do is simply not engage with people who are clearly peddling bullshit. There has been some credence given to the idea that you have a moral obligation to engage trolls and misguided people just in case you change the mind of a lurker. This is bullshit too. Deplatforming and ghosting are the only effective means of combating misinformation. We do that in real life when our plumber proudly claims the earth is flat, the internet should be no different.