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This journalist really wrote an entire article about facebook. Why is an essay needed to descibe obvious behaviour that everyone sees and can intuitely understa

This journalist really wrote an entire article about facebook. Why is an essay needed to descibe obvious behaviour that everyone sees and can intuitely understand with their eyes. "In the 20th century, America built the most capable knowledge-producing institutions in human history. In the past decade, they got stupider en masse." ???? People didn't get stupider in the last decade. There is access to more information and education then ever has been. We are slowing coming towards ultimate prosperity. Just look at the response to the Russia-Ukraine war. With technology education has slowly reached every human and everyone is aware of corruption and how war is merely a tool used by the powerful that only results in the rest of society harmed. Look at the reactions to things like abortion or taking rights away from people. There is so much progression yet the author lets his jaded view of Mr.Zuck's actions and his own obsession with social media to recreate this misguided world view. A view where access to political information that doesn't fit his point a view is a world where humans have become stupider.

bobobob420 5y ago
"The stupidity on the right is most visible in the many conspiracy theories spreading across right-wing media and now into Congress. “Pizzagate,” QAnon, the belief that vaccines contain microchips, the conviction that Donald Trump won reelection—it’s hard to imagine any of these ideas or belief systems reaching the levels that they have without Facebook and Twitter." I feel sad for this author. Still clinging on to right vs left. Refusing to understand that half of the country voted for the candidate he opposes. Yet he can not make the simple intellectual jump to understand the other side? You really cannot sit in the shoes of Americans who vote differently to you and understand why they feel this way, what their reality is, what their experiences are, what they have been taught? This intolerableness stems from the author's high horse he sits on. This article is merely a reflection of his own lack of intellegence.
- redmen 5y ago
  You sound so angry here. What are your thoughts on Ray Dalio, polarization? My thought is that this is a force of nature the USA is up against. Even in nature before humans, things polarize. There is a balance between the strong and the weak force. Between cooperation and competition. It's when these balances get thrown off we move towards another.
- tomjakubowski 5y ago
  Refusing to understand that half of the country voted for the candidate he opposes. No presidential candidate in US history has ever received votes from half of the country, because voter turnout is so low. If you mean half of ballots cast, that's not true in this case either: in 2016 Trump lost the popular vote and nobody won a majority of ballots nationwide.
- llanowarelves 5y ago
  Ironically, it's well known that the side of "Love, Understanding, Sympathy, and Tolerance" understands the other side less than it understands them. It means the other side has higher actual-empathy (ability to emulate what someone else is thinking/feeling: putting yourself in their shoes). (From Haidt): https://theindependentwhig.com/haidt-passages/haidt/conservatives-understand-liberals-better-than-liberals-understand-conservatives/ https://theindependentwhig.com/haidt-passages/haidt/conserva...
redmen 5y ago
And more information automatically means better? Look at covid and how dumb people were on that. I think there is a positive correlation between access to information and vaccine denial.
thr0wawayf00 5y ago
> Why is an essay needed to descibe obvious behaviour that everyone sees and can intuitely understand with their eyes. Because we disagree on the assertion on what everyone can see and understand with their own eyes. > There is access to more information and education then ever has been. It's also getting harder and harder to discern malicious disinformation from legitimate information, particularly among those that aren't as technologically literate. The last 6 years have shattered the utopian dream of the internet bringing the world together through shared information. For example, many people still believe that the Newtown massacre, one of the most heinous crimes committed in my lifetime, was a government hoax. This is the opposite of enlightenment. > We are slowing coming towards ultimate prosperity. We are reaching levels of wealth inequality not seen since the Gilded Age. I'd love to know what metrics you're using to come to that conclusion. The middle class in America is eroding at an alarming rate and more as more people fall into financial insecurity.
Fricken 5y ago
Individuals don't get stupider, but in groups they are plenty capable of regressing to collective idiocy.

bobobob420 5y ago

"The stupidity on the right is most visible in the many conspiracy theories spreading across right-wing media and now into Congress. “Pizzagate,” QAnon, the belief that vaccines contain microchips, the conviction that Donald Trump won reelection—it’s hard to imagine any of these ideas or belief systems reaching the levels that they have without Facebook and Twitter." I feel sad for this author. Still clinging on to right vs left. Refusing to understand that half of the country voted for the candidate he opposes. Yet he can not make the simple intellectual jump to understand the other side? You really cannot sit in the shoes of Americans who vote differently to you and understand why they feel this way, what their reality is, what their experiences are, what they have been taught? This intolerableness stems from the author's high horse he sits on. This article is merely a reflection of his own lack of intellegence.

redmen 5y ago
You sound so angry here. What are your thoughts on Ray Dalio, polarization? My thought is that this is a force of nature the USA is up against. Even in nature before humans, things polarize. There is a balance between the strong and the weak force. Between cooperation and competition. It's when these balances get thrown off we move towards another.
tomjakubowski 5y ago
Refusing to understand that half of the country voted for the candidate he opposes. No presidential candidate in US history has ever received votes from half of the country, because voter turnout is so low. If you mean half of ballots cast, that's not true in this case either: in 2016 Trump lost the popular vote and nobody won a majority of ballots nationwide.
llanowarelves 5y ago
Ironically, it's well known that the side of "Love, Understanding, Sympathy, and Tolerance" understands the other side less than it understands them. It means the other side has higher actual-empathy (ability to emulate what someone else is thinking/feeling: putting yourself in their shoes). (From Haidt): https://theindependentwhig.com/haidt-passages/haidt/conservatives-understand-liberals-better-than-liberals-understand-conservatives/ https://theindependentwhig.com/haidt-passages/haidt/conserva...

redmen 5y ago

And more information automatically means better? Look at covid and how dumb people were on that. I think there is a positive correlation between access to information and vaccine denial.

thr0wawayf00 5y ago

> Why is an essay needed to descibe obvious behaviour that everyone sees and can intuitely understand with their eyes. Because we disagree on the assertion on what everyone can see and understand with their own eyes. > There is access to more information and education then ever has been. It's also getting harder and harder to discern malicious disinformation from legitimate information, particularly among those that aren't as technologically literate. The last 6 years have shattered the utopian dream of the internet bringing the world together through shared information. For example, many people still believe that the Newtown massacre, one of the most heinous crimes committed in my lifetime, was a government hoax. This is the opposite of enlightenment. > We are slowing coming towards ultimate prosperity. We are reaching levels of wealth inequality not seen since the Gilded Age. I'd love to know what metrics you're using to come to that conclusion. The middle class in America is eroding at an alarming rate and more as more people fall into financial insecurity.

Fricken 5y ago

Individuals don't get stupider, but in groups they are plenty capable of regressing to collective idiocy.