The book was written 24 years ago but some of the text is more relevant today than ever.
Here's a quote i really enjoyed:
'The world of USA Today is a realm of instant fact and no analysis.'
'The world of USA Today is a realm of instant fact and no analysis.'
YES. THIS.
like for example, people on the facebook/tumblr who literally repost some statement that overlays a picture about how GM food is bad (the food itself is not, everything we eat has genes like come on); how you can buy dangerous diseases online (how else are we going to study them and created preventatives you idiots) and even; why vaccinations are bad (why do you ignore the science and history).
Like why do people believe stuff so easily?? If they cared to expand their knowledge or cared enough about the information to post it then why don't they look it up and find out for themselves? These people only care about the information as they're reading it or as a way to "one-up" other people. It's not hard to check the sources.
Or shit like "why the earth is rly flat!!1"
Or shit like "why the earth is rly flat!!1"
there's like 1 video on it on the youtube. there's 1000+ resources and evidence that the earth is not. why do people go out of their way to be reversists?
The answer is simple. Because emotion. Because it's exciting to go against the grain. But that's all people care about. "Wake up sheeple" says some government-paranoid fuck on my facebook who doesnt trust medical science because they think that "the government" and "evil scientist" are synonymous/ closely related. WHY DON'T YOU LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE YOURSELF. THE INFO IS OUT THERE
People straight up don't care about the truth. they rather be wow'd. they rather impress other people, they would rather flaunt a meaningless statement.
That's why creationists still exist. Because it's more 'impressive' that a single figure boomed down on our planet and started life, instead of the idea of a gradual continuity. a slow progression.
And what about the fucks who are like 'oh but we don't really know, everything is possible'
like dude. you want to believe something that has a 1% chance of being real instead of something else that has 77% chance, because you want to be different, because 'anything is possible'. like mate, you are lacking common sense.
ok, another good quote from the book: "Europeans learned about corn and potatoes from Native Americans and gave them smallpox in return".
also
"the cat who fell off a roof in Topeka (and lived) gets the same space as the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Equality is a magnificent system for human rights and morality in general, but not for the evaluation of information. We are bombarded with too much in our inordinately complex world; if we cannot sort the trivial from the profound, we are lost in terminal overload. The criteria for sorting must involve context and theory- the larger perspective that a good education provides"
Dude this problem is 700% worse today. Today we have the burden that is celebrities and their pathetic lives that keep getting reported on; what they wear, what they do, whether they have kids etc etc. I wish we could just ignore all that bs and focus on the important shit. I wish there was no demand for that mindless crap and they would stop providing news stories on shit like that.
rant over.
2 comments:
This should be a pre-reader for uni haha, it sounds like psyc1001 too, where they taught of human argument flaws and stuff. I like this area
That part about how people can't sort out the trivial from the profound is so real. Like everyone takes every piece of random information and use it to make them seem deep and intelligent and it's taken at face value. (I actually admittedly do this a lot)
Like doing marketing and shit, I realize the only thing humans actually really care about is just being like "wow" or "oh shit" and if you can make everything you do seem to cause that reaction people will eat it up.
Also after reading this, I feel like, im like yea 100%%% i thought that and it made me wonder about like circle jerk like, Im about this cause i already agree with it from the get go, and I intepret it in a way where im like, yea im right cause this is published and its right. I just started thinking about how other people might feel that way too when they read like those badly sourced overly exagerated false articles and they are like yea this article is right cause i already think it is and eat that shit up YOU KNOW????
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