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Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

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Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#161

Post by pdonis »

pier25 wrote: post #120
pdonis wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've replaced religion and witches with aliens, new age beliefs, flat Earth, reptile conspiracies, etc. I think you are understating the problem. Aliens, new age beliefs, flat Earth, reptile conspiracies, etc. are fringe beliefs in our current society, and are recognized to be fringe beliefs. Religion and belief in witches, in the societies you are referring to that had those beliefs, were not fringe beliefs; they…

> For example, in Salem, Massachusetts in 1695, people who said witches did not exist were the ones who were believed to be on the fringe. Indeed, but those people were highly religious Puritans that emigrated to the New World because they were prosecuted in England. https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/puritanism When you put those kind of people in isolation and a high stress situation you get those kind…

> When you put those kind of people in isolation and a high stress situation you get those kinds of behaviors.

The Puritans were by no means the only people of that time who had mainstream beliefs that we now consider delusional. You'd be hard pressed to find any significant body of people of that time who didn't.

> For example, climate change denial.

I would also say, climate change alarmism. Which, if you are inclined to disagree (you might not be, I don't know, but I suspect at least some people reading this will be), illustrates another aspect of the problem: it's hard to improve mainstream beliefs when there is not general agreement over how to improve them--which new beliefs should take the place of the ones that are claimed to be wrong.

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#162

Post by aj7 »

anewguy9000 wrote: post #136
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #33

Counterintuitively, people love reading about and engaging in what they consider "stupidity". Internet companies capitalize on this by bringing an optimized stream of stupidity for your viewing pleasure. Take a look at the front page of Reddit (logged out, default subs): Half of the content highlights stupidity of others: /r/IdiotsInCars shows the worst drivers from around the world, /r/insanepeoplefacebook shows the…

actually, my friend, the median iq is still 100 - any way you slice it :/

In the U.S., 95-98.

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#163

Post by imdoor »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #32

I've engaged a few flat earthers to actually listen to their arguments and show them my own evidence that it's real (locating amateur radio satellites using data shared by people around the globe and demonstrating the doppler effect on them). The response strikes me as being indicative of mental illness. And I don't mean that as an insult - I mean that when confronted with that they're clearly irrational. And somethi…

Or maybe it could be that, given their prior beliefs, the reactions to your arguments are, in fact, _rational_ in a Bayesian sense?

I think, with Bayesian probabilities, you can have a setup where, given the same data and two different prior distributions, you end up with two wildly different posteriors after updating the initial beliefs. Unfortunately, i don't have an example at hand but i remember there is a very interesting passage on this phenomenon in E. T. Jaynes "Probability Theory: The Logic of Science". Can anyone else expand on this?

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#164

Post by cryptica »

googthrowaway42 wrote: post #149
cryptica wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the people who are downvoting me are definitely not nitwits. They are smart, but they're short term thinkers and they think that they can improve things by censoring these kinds of insights. It's not uncommon for me to get many downvotes while people replying in the comments are saying that they agree. The irony is that I don't think that our monetary system is evil. I just think it has been hacked/explo…

Midwits, not nitwits. Obviously these people are very smart in a particular sense. But yes I agree with you. The super elites with competent financial advisors will just roll over into gold or crypto.

I didn't realize that was even a word. I guess it crept into our vocabulary for a good reason ;p

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#165

Post by mcbits »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #58
grenoire wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is too much information around for the average person to filter and process and digest. All three are important parts of living in a society and it looks to me like even with e.g. economic issues alone, it's just very hard for (to be fair) anybody to keep up. In turn, people reach out to conspiracy theories to simplify the world around them with obvious answers and explanations. My theory, sort of.

Yeah that crossed my mind as well. People who have so little understanding of the mechanics behind it all that they think it's impossible we've put anything in Earth orbit - how could ANYONE understand that? In one case though I had someone say that I wasn't hitting satellites, I was hitting a solar-powered high altitude plane. When I pointed out that it would have to be going at 23 times the speed of sound at sea le…

My conclusion about flat-earthers is that the vast majority are just trolling. There are probably also a fair number who get sucked in by the idea, but they aren't the ones out there making the arguments for it. The frustratingly persistent people who can come up with one outlandish argument after another are too smart to actually believe what they're saying.

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#166

Post by jxramos »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #33

Counterintuitively, people love reading about and engaging in what they consider "stupidity". Internet companies capitalize on this by bringing an optimized stream of stupidity for your viewing pleasure. Take a look at the front page of Reddit (logged out, default subs): Half of the content highlights stupidity of others: /r/IdiotsInCars shows the worst drivers from around the world, /r/insanepeoplefacebook shows the…

stupidity concentrators so good. Always remember folks, you get good at what you do. I'd like to coin the term intelligence concentrators. We need some of those.

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#167

Post by Siira »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #32

I've engaged a few flat earthers to actually listen to their arguments and show them my own evidence that it's real (locating amateur radio satellites using data shared by people around the globe and demonstrating the doppler effect on them). The response strikes me as being indicative of mental illness. And I don't mean that as an insult - I mean that when confronted with that they're clearly irrational. And somethi…

The problem is actually economical IMO; Fools don’t have a skin in the game, and don’t lose anything from having false beliefs. They would be perfectly capable of discerning the nonflatness of Earth if their lives depended on it.

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#168

Post by mdoms »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #33

Counterintuitively, people love reading about and engaging in what they consider "stupidity". Internet companies capitalize on this by bringing an optimized stream of stupidity for your viewing pleasure. Take a look at the front page of Reddit (logged out, default subs): Half of the content highlights stupidity of others: /r/IdiotsInCars shows the worst drivers from around the world, /r/insanepeoplefacebook shows the…

One of the best pieces of advice I have taken recently is "stop using anger as entertainment" (you can substitute "incredulity", "smugness" or "schadenfreude" for "anger" to make it more applicable to the websites you listed).

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#169

Post by seppin »

Fricken wrote: post #138
TallGuyShort wrote: post #32

I've engaged a few flat earthers to actually listen to their arguments and show them my own evidence that it's real (locating amateur radio satellites using data shared by people around the globe and demonstrating the doppler effect on them). The response strikes me as being indicative of mental illness. And I don't mean that as an insult - I mean that when confronted with that they're clearly irrational. And somethi…

Throughout most of history people have believed wildly incorrect things, yet civilization carries on. Unless you're an astronomer or involved in some pursuit in which the shape of the earth is of material consequence, it just doesn't matter. Flat earthers find community and identity amongst other flat earthers, and that to them is of much higher significance than whether the earth is actually flat or not.

> Throughout most of history people have believed wildly incorrect things, yet civilization carries on.

Society has mostly been run by autocratic systems. If we are determined to make democracy work, conspiracy and anti-fact ideologies are existential threats.

Re: Is Stupidity Expanding? Some Hypotheses

#170

Post by xboxnolifes »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #146
ctlachance wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comedy? In MY serious thread? Not on my watch.

Making jokes on HN is pretty hit-or-miss. Though I suppose a joke based off a typo is pretty low-effort.

Hard to say if they downvoted for the joke, or they just stopped reading at "Indeed they do". I'll say I stopped reading until I saw the reply.
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