this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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In today's political landscape, it's hard not to notice the growing divide and the erosion of informed discourse. As we navigate these turbulent times, I can't help but wonder: Have we reached a tipping point where ignorance has become the norm? Are we so far down the road that the public is ill-equipped to counter the latest governmental abuses?

It seems like the powers that be have successfully convinced many that losing is winning. The erosion of trust in institutions and the rise of misinformation can leave one questioning if we're collectively stuck in a cycle of intellectual stagnation.

Let's unpack this a bit:

  • Media Influence: The media plays a crucial role in shaping public perception. However, with the rise of clickbait and sensationalism, the quality of information available has deteriorated. This makes it harder for individuals to discern credible sources from those pushing agendas.
  • Historical Context: Looking back, periods of significant change have often been met with resistance and misinformation. The current era isn't unique in this aspect, but the speed at which information spreads today amplifies these challenges.
  • Public Engagement: The shift towards more polarized debates can stifle open dialogue. When discussion becomes a battleground of talking points rather than fact-based exploration, it's harder to foster understanding.
  • Intellectual curiosity: Encouraging critical thinking is essential. Without it, individuals risk being swayed by narratives that don't hold up under scrutiny.

So, while the situation seems dire, there's still room for hope. The challenge lies in recognizing our role as participants in shaping the narrative. We can choose to engage thoughtfully, seek out diverse perspectives, and remain curious.

Let's not lose sight of the power we hold in our collective intellect. By fostering critical thinking and a commitment to understanding, we can navigate these challenges and find our way back to a more informed public discourse.

top 34 comments
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[–] Chainweasel 7 points 7 hours ago

America reached its tipping point of ignorance in 2016, we've been toppled since then.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Intellectual curiosity: Encouraging critical thinking is essential. Without it, individuals risk being swayed by narratives that don't hold up under scrutiny.

I'm convinced this is why "AI" is getting shoved down our collective throats so hard.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Recently read this guy's posts here - good stuff on this topic:

https://substack.com/home/post/p-156951112

This most recent article is about LLM's specifically, but the previous articles deal in more fundamental terms with human agency in the modern tech world. Definitely a good read IMO.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just today i noticed microsoft slapped AI in Notepad. Fucking Notepad!!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

….really? lol. Everyone was so worried about skynet or whatever, when really we are just going to kill the planet burning rainforests for…. Ai driven notepad. And imaginary money denoted by hashes. How wonderful

[–] kitnaht 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

AI has been here for years now before you even knew it. Reddit employed fake users for a long time to make the site seem more active than it actually was. Before AI, they just had mass amounts of people pushing things. Now they can do it on the cheap.

[–] Hobbes_Dent 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

LONG LIVE THE KING

That’s where discourse is at.

[–] Brkdncr 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Only historians can determine if we reached a tipping point.

[–] DrownedRats 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I asked one of my mates who's a historian and he said yes. Viva la revolution

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The abuse of autoritative sources (not to be confused with "authoritarian") positions for personal upside maximization (which often meant spreading propaganda) and subsequent fall in trust in authoritative sources long predates Trump.

I mean, in the US, Newspapers - which are supposed to inform people, not to convince them of anything - openly gloat about their "opinion making" and are criticized if they do not openly support a candidate in Presidential Elections (the very opposite of Journalism)

Then there's the decades-long massive abuse of "expert sources" on Finance and Economics by Neoliberalism to push very specific narratives, for very specific political ends which overwhelmingly benefited a very specific subset of people.

What you're seeing now is the product of the deceit practiced by many of those who are supposed to be independent experts who inform the rest on important subject, and the blanked distrust on the the Media and "experts" and subsequent blooming of shameless loudmouth liars who speak with maximum confidence in politics is really just the harvesting that which has been sowed since at least the 80s.

IMHO the tipping point was decades ago and what you see now is the acceleration downhill having been going for long enough that the speed of travel downwards has become scary.

[–] MolecularCactus1324 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think you’re missing that we are being deeply manipulated by hoards of foreign influence campaigns. Social media has exploded propaganda in the US and divided the population. Some of this propaganda also comes from internal sources.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Haha!!! Sadly, I think our domestic stupidity is more than adequate to explain the situation. I'd love to blame the boogyman here, but let's face it -- we're #1 in stupidity and self-owns.

[–] XiELEd 5 points 1 day ago

Something similar happened to us in the Philippines. There was a huge propaganda and disinformation campaign on Facebook by the Marcos family (rumored to have partnered with Cambridge Analytica). Which led to people falsely thinking that Marcos I's regime was a golden age, and now we have his son as president.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Pshh, hardly.

Make no mistake: things can always get worse.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I’m confused about the state of Christians in America. I mean, they surround their entire lives around this Jesus character as he’s depicted in the Bible. They believe he’s God’s manifestation as a person without sin and yada yada.

Yet, they think Trump is a good representation of Christian values. If anything, he’s closer to the embodiment of the antithesis of Jesus Christ. How is it possible to be so bad at your own religion? The teachings of Jesus isn’t exactly rocket science. It’s mostly just ”be kind to others”.

But somehow these people - who supposedly spend all their waking hours around his teachings - are so ignorant they fail to grasp this basic concept. Nah, instead they cherry pick some ambiguous sentence from their book to justify their hate for others.

Well, that’s my rant about how the level of ignorance is beyond my comprehension. Or if you prefer: I’m ignorant about where all this ignorance is coming from.

[–] shaggyb 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Trump is a perfect representation of Christian values.

Christians value convenience, tribal dominance and subjugation of outsiders, and the avoidance of accountability for their actions. Every bit of the history of Christianity reinforces that. He's as Christian as it gets.

If you want to talk about the teachings ascribed to the mythos of Jesus, Christianity is the last place to look.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

I’m aware that Christianity (and most other religions) are just full of asshole hypocrites who excuse their evil doings by either:

  • suffer from the main character syndrome and believe the evil thing they just did is God’s will, so it must be good, because God is good.
  • be aware that it’s evil, but it’s all good as long they ask God for forgiveness afterwards, because God is good and accepts all forgiveness.
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

Christians and hypocrisy go hand in hand. How many cross tattoos are out there? How many Christians scorn the poor, or their neighbors? It's kind of a running joke that if you want to learn about the bible, ask an atheist. The more you read the bible, the more logical inconsistencies you find in it.

The real "value" in Christianity and the bible in general is that the masses can outsource their morals and ethics to some external thing without having to think too deeply. (Because who wants to think for themselves? That's a lot of work!)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lol no we can get so much dumber!

[–] Lost_My_Mind 10 points 1 day ago

Thats not what a tipping point is. You're thinking of rock bottom.

[–] Lost_My_Mind 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Have we reached a tipping point where ignorance has become the norm?

Yes. We reached that point in 1776.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

I know this was supposed to be a little jab, but look back at writings by the founding fathers from that time. They were clearly well-reasoned, and at least TRIED to make a long-lasting republic. The USA wasn't just slapped together randomly -- they had a real plan and an architecture. If anything, it's impressive how long it took to degrade the place.

A great example is George Washington's opinion on getting involved in wars on foreign soil. Well, we might not call it "war" anymore, but we sure as shit have troops overseas at all times. I'm pretty sure the founding fathers never intended us to be the world police in this way.

[–] Sanctus 4 points 1 day ago

We have a dictator now. We already tipped.

[–] over_clox 5 points 1 day ago

Elmo wants people to be poor, uneducated, and more religious...

https://youtu.be/_u4bQlVMS1Q

[–] Hayduke 4 points 1 day ago

Pff, hold our beer. We have just under four years to show how monumentally ignorant, apathetic and subservient we can become. After that, who knows? My crystal ball just shows brand-sponsered schools and overflowing private prisons.

If nobody did anything meaningful over the past eight years about this, I don't think there really is a limit. When the education system takes a nose-dive and what is available is neo-Christian/capitalist indoctrination, it's only going to get worse. I'd sure like to think the opposing party had the grapes to stop this nonsense dead in it's tracks, but again - eight years and I guess we are just cool with it all. I want to love my country, but JFC, it is sure hell-bent on ghost-riding it into a christo-fascist idiocracy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think it's a bit more hopeful than that(America is still fucked short term, but humanity might be better off long term). Throughout history, people have been misinformed idiots that don't think critically. It's just that prior to about 2008, people didn't really have access to the deluge of information that is social media and we're still trying to figure that out.

The reason misinformation on social media works so well is that people want to learn things, and if someone tells them a believable enough lie, they'll take that as fact doing only minimal checks(eg: my friend whom I trust shared this article saying that it's the Mexican's fault I see so many homeless people, so it must be true).

Stuff like this has happened throughout history. People published absolutely insane things in books and presented them as fact for hundreds of years, and it set back things like science and medicine for equivalently long, as people didn't fact check things then either.

The fact that people are already hammering on about trying to fact check social media means that people are educated enough now to start, and we as a species just need another small push in that direction

[–] stoly 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The internet has been around, as you understand it now, since the late 1990s. 1995 - 1996 is earliest analog to what we have now.

[–] Rhynoplaz 3 points 1 day ago

Yes, but not really.

In the 90s, the Internet was more like a fetch system. You'd think of a question and you'd go to the Internet to find the answer, and then it was back to the real world.

Now it's a push system. Answers are sent to us throughout the day, long before we are able to think of the question.

[–] inclementimmigrant 2 points 1 day ago

Betteridge's law applies here so very much.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Lol you think its just "America"

glances at Germany and AfD 👀

The world is always stupid, stupidity is just louder due to social media. Stupidity knows no borders.

[–] SolidShake 1 points 1 day ago

Know what I think is crazy? One "side" is completely blind and they don't know it.

Like I hear republicans explain how a democrat behaved and is as a person and often times that's how I'd describe a republican.

Like I've heard people say "democrats are just racist and don't care about anyone else and all they want is money " but like.. that's how I would describe a Republican to a T.

One of us is wrong in that situation but both is think we are right. The power of division is crazy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

unfortunately not yet

[–] FreakinSteve -1 points 1 day ago

Liberals spent years defending free speech for fascists, so the fascists used that power to brainwash fucking retards and pizza-faced incels.