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It's becoming more and more clear to me that the underlying issue driving much of our current crises is that people think binary - it's either "climate apocalyp

It's becoming more and more clear to me that the underlying issue driving much of our current crises is that people think binary - it's either "climate apocalypse" or "let's burn all the fossil fuel". Same for the COVID mess, gun laws, critical race theory, take your pick. People are uncomfortable with nuance and since we basically have to pick the experts we trust we fall victim to the loudest and most exciting voice.

sharemywin 5y ago
I couldn't agree more with your statement. I also think we have a broker versus agent problem. I view a broker as someone paid via a seller to maximize profit. versus an agent as someone paid by the consumer who has the consumers interests at heart. There are lot of brokers google, facebook, politicians etc. not a lot of agents. both help to get transactions done.
snarf21 5y ago
You are right but what is the alternative. Do you think that it is practical to expect people to become subject matter experts on everything? Should they spend their limited free time reading through dozens of articles about covid vaccination studies (e.g.)? No one is going to do that, we are wired to value group think. This is similar to "Thinking: Fast and Slow". We now take clues from Fox News or CNN or Hatebook and if something matches are pattern, we just accept it and move on. The issue is the world is very very complicated and getting more so every day. People just want to get through today and tomorrow. In the end, they don't really care and they won't care until someone they trusts tells them to care. The problem is that the people spewing garbage aren't trying to disseminate information (even with a bias), they are structured specifically to create outrage (faux) that sells more ads. This is extremely profitable and nothing will change as long as that is true. Perception is reality now. If we want to stop this, we need to heavily tax digital advertising revenue. We need people to have to make a choice to pay for this outrage infotainment or do something else.
spaetzleesser 5y ago
I agree. I think people have figured that it's easier to get your way if you portray the "other" side so far away that there is no way to even talk to them (other than yelling). Marking people as "socialist", "racist" or "transphobic" marks them as irredeemably bad
sleepysysadmin 5y ago
>It's becoming more and more clear to me that the underlying issue driving much of our current crises is that people think binary - it's either "climate apocalypse" or "let's burn all the fossil fuel". Same for the COVID mess, gun laws, critical race theory, take your pick. People are uncomfortable with nuance and since we basically have to pick the experts we trust we fall victim to the loudest and most exciting voice. It's a new religion. Due to religion being outlawed in places like China this new religion hides itself. I suppose there's no rule saying religions must be public. Which given the societal hatred of recent new religions it makes sense. In addition, their fundamental structure has been tried and failed across the world many times. So going public isn't going to work. They are prominent in Covid. Like many religions, they wish to dictate what you eat and do in health matters. They are certainly anti firearm. Critical race theory comes out of this new religion. Obviously they are very pro-civil rights. Feminism, gay rights, abortion rights, gender roles, and similarity. Social justice in a way to be sure. Intersectionality is obviously a big deal. Ending the drug war is very important to them. Their goal is a classless society and equal outcome. This puts them at odds with capitalism and the business society. Climate change is a way for their agenda to be pushed against the business class. I don't know exact numbers of how many adherents but it's about 3 million in north america. They are really struggling in north america but they are certainly easy to identify once you identify their 'heresy and apostasy' type things. Sam Harris is a racist right? He's calling this new religion the 'religion of anti-racism' as what do you name it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXPMsrQ44b4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXPMsrQ44b4 The irony is that they are seeing it from the atheist point of view, which misses the whole thing. When you have to step back and see it from the economic or political point of view. The irony being those 2 guys are on the record being on this new religion's side. That's beyond irony to me.

sharemywin 5y ago

I couldn't agree more with your statement. I also think we have a broker versus agent problem. I view a broker as someone paid via a seller to maximize profit. versus an agent as someone paid by the consumer who has the consumers interests at heart. There are lot of brokers google, facebook, politicians etc. not a lot of agents. both help to get transactions done.

snarf21 5y ago

You are right but what is the alternative. Do you think that it is practical to expect people to become subject matter experts on everything? Should they spend their limited free time reading through dozens of articles about covid vaccination studies (e.g.)? No one is going to do that, we are wired to value group think. This is similar to "Thinking: Fast and Slow". We now take clues from Fox News or CNN or Hatebook and if something matches are pattern, we just accept it and move on. The issue is the world is very very complicated and getting more so every day. People just want to get through today and tomorrow. In the end, they don't really care and they won't care until someone they trusts tells them to care. The problem is that the people spewing garbage aren't trying to disseminate information (even with a bias), they are structured specifically to create outrage (faux) that sells more ads. This is extremely profitable and nothing will change as long as that is true. Perception is reality now. If we want to stop this, we need to heavily tax digital advertising revenue. We need people to have to make a choice to pay for this outrage infotainment or do something else.

spaetzleesser 5y ago

I agree. I think people have figured that it's easier to get your way if you portray the "other" side so far away that there is no way to even talk to them (other than yelling). Marking people as "socialist", "racist" or "transphobic" marks them as irredeemably bad

sleepysysadmin 5y ago

>It's becoming more and more clear to me that the underlying issue driving much of our current crises is that people think binary - it's either "climate apocalypse" or "let's burn all the fossil fuel". Same for the COVID mess, gun laws, critical race theory, take your pick. People are uncomfortable with nuance and since we basically have to pick the experts we trust we fall victim to the loudest and most exciting voice. It's a new religion. Due to religion being outlawed in places like China this new religion hides itself. I suppose there's no rule saying religions must be public. Which given the societal hatred of recent new religions it makes sense. In addition, their fundamental structure has been tried and failed across the world many times. So going public isn't going to work. They are prominent in Covid. Like many religions, they wish to dictate what you eat and do in health matters. They are certainly anti firearm. Critical race theory comes out of this new religion. Obviously they are very pro-civil rights. Feminism, gay rights, abortion rights, gender roles, and similarity. Social justice in a way to be sure. Intersectionality is obviously a big deal. Ending the drug war is very important to them. Their goal is a classless society and equal outcome. This puts them at odds with capitalism and the business society. Climate change is a way for their agenda to be pushed against the business class. I don't know exact numbers of how many adherents but it's about 3 million in north america. They are really struggling in north america but they are certainly easy to identify once you identify their 'heresy and apostasy' type things. Sam Harris is a racist right? He's calling this new religion the 'religion of anti-racism' as what do you name it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXPMsrQ44b4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXPMsrQ44b4 The irony is that they are seeing it from the atheist point of view, which misses the whole thing. When you have to step back and see it from the economic or political point of view. The irony being those 2 guys are on the record being on this new religion's side. That's beyond irony to me.