Most Americans have never had critical thinking as part of their educational curricula. If you’re very lucky you’ll cover critical thinking skills as part of AP English in highschool, otherwise that’s a second semester course your freshman year of college. Most Americans can’t look at a particular piece of media and unpack what it’s saying and why it’s saying it. Americans are ridiculously easy to manipulate as a result.
We need a standard high school class that is some kind of intro to epistemology, how to study something scientifically, how to root out bias, and maybe even a little on logical fallacies.
How many high school grads are even aware of the concept of confirmation bias?
I fear we as a collective society are just so, so bad about knowing how to find the correct answer to something. Despite all the technology at our fingertips, so many people learn things the same way humans have for centuries: somebody I trust told me!
Tbf most schools don’t. Mine in the UK didn’t either. Critical thinking isn’t something a curriculum can teach you, it’s something you need to pick up yourself and adapt from all the other things you’re taught. School can definitely help you develop those skills tho although I think this is just another reflection of how badly the US invests in education. That and the rampant misinformation and propaganda all over the place that seems to teach people to only trust what reaffirms their own beliefs. Society is f*cked until we actually take a long hard look at where we are, why, and where we should be.
Ahh now you’re thinking like Thanos. Or maybe Ultron.
Humanity is a species of upright locusts that never socially evolved beyond our cave brains. Capitalism dangles a shiny new thing every so often to keep the masses distracted and intellectually diffuse, while a small cabal of insanely wealthy cretins gleefully destroys our planet.
I wonder if we listen to Trump more than they do. I have a hard time believing people can listen to him speak and come out with ideas like “he’s real”, “telling it like it is”, “he’ll do better with the economy”. Ok, maybe the last one because people are dumb
People here always talk about conservatives getting their news from Facebook or Fox.
But the connection I didn’t make until way too recently…… maybe they don’t know any politics firsthand. My Facebook tells me Trump is “telling it like it is”, so I don’t need to listen to him
It’s the power of propaganda. The dems just need to start sending out mailers that scare voters like the republicans do. Shouldn’t be difficult. All they have to do is send everyone a copy of project 2025 a page at a time. They also need to hire a social media team that astroturfs and gets the talking points out.
Well, like the quoted person said:
Now, I have no idea how anyone could possibly think that, unless they only get Trump sanewashed by their favorite news outlet.
You vastly, vastly overestimate the intelligence of the average person/voter.
Most Americans read and write at a 6th or 7th grade level.
Most Americans have never had critical thinking as part of their educational curricula. If you’re very lucky you’ll cover critical thinking skills as part of AP English in highschool, otherwise that’s a second semester course your freshman year of college. Most Americans can’t look at a particular piece of media and unpack what it’s saying and why it’s saying it. Americans are ridiculously easy to manipulate as a result.
We need a standard high school class that is some kind of intro to epistemology, how to study something scientifically, how to root out bias, and maybe even a little on logical fallacies.
How many high school grads are even aware of the concept of confirmation bias?
I fear we as a collective society are just so, so bad about knowing how to find the correct answer to something. Despite all the technology at our fingertips, so many people learn things the same way humans have for centuries: somebody I trust told me!
Tbf most schools don’t. Mine in the UK didn’t either. Critical thinking isn’t something a curriculum can teach you, it’s something you need to pick up yourself and adapt from all the other things you’re taught. School can definitely help you develop those skills tho although I think this is just another reflection of how badly the US invests in education. That and the rampant misinformation and propaganda all over the place that seems to teach people to only trust what reaffirms their own beliefs. Society is f*cked until we actually take a long hard look at where we are, why, and where we should be.
That’s just not true. Yes, you can pick it up yourself but this is not an unteachable concept.
No.
Well that may be a good excuse if you’re failing your critical thinking class. I had one in college and it was great.
Which fucking sucks…Empathy is an AP course.
Extending your line of thinking: knowing the average person’s intelligence, understand that there are 4 billion people more stupid.
At what percentile do we get to a person who is not an utter imbecile?
Final question: how do I hit the reset button on humanity? I think we’re using the wrong build.
Ahh now you’re thinking like Thanos. Or maybe Ultron.
Humanity is a species of upright locusts that never socially evolved beyond our cave brains. Capitalism dangles a shiny new thing every so often to keep the masses distracted and intellectually diffuse, while a small cabal of insanely wealthy cretins gleefully destroys our planet.
Always have been. This sad observation has been a part of my life’s lamentations for as long as I can remember.
I wonder if we listen to Trump more than they do. I have a hard time believing people can listen to him speak and come out with ideas like “he’s real”, “telling it like it is”, “he’ll do better with the economy”. Ok, maybe the last one because people are dumb
People here always talk about conservatives getting their news from Facebook or Fox.
But the connection I didn’t make until way too recently…… maybe they don’t know any politics firsthand. My Facebook tells me Trump is “telling it like it is”, so I don’t need to listen to him
It’s the power of propaganda. The dems just need to start sending out mailers that scare voters like the republicans do. Shouldn’t be difficult. All they have to do is send everyone a copy of project 2025 a page at a time. They also need to hire a social media team that astroturfs and gets the talking points out.
It doesn’t work, they ran plenty of ads on P2025 and people responded that “Trump won’t really do that, Dems are just trying to scare us.”