• Clent@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      Stupid people don’t know how stupid they are. They reject the very notion. It’s how one stays stupid in a world with all the world’s knowledge at our fingertips.

      Turns out access to knowledge was not a threat to the leaders in history. The very idea they were concerns may be oversold.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        14 days ago

        It’s easy to assume that everyone that disagrees with us is stupid, but I can assure you that’s very much not true.

        I’ve seen otherwise very intelligent people lost down the rabbit hole of right-wing fuckbaggery. I think it’s often just a slow burn from social media. I saw a video earlier today about an ancient tool for spear throwing, and was immediately afterwards presented with a video about how the new Dragon Age game is ruined by DEI…

        And the saddest thing is, most people on the extremes have started at the same place: An unhappiness with their own life and a search for a solution. They’ve just ended up at vastly different positions, in that the right has chosen to blame the nebulous “others” below them, while the left has chosen to blame the “others” above them. And punching down is always an ugly look.

        • Clent@lemmy.world
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          14 days ago

          I think that’s a different discussion.m. We can make excuses all day for how people end up with extreme views. It doesn’t change anything. The reason it occurs is part of human nature, a weakness that one has to choose to overcome on a daily basis or not. Choosing wrong too often and there might be no way back.

          I find this most evident in people who suddenly shift right when they end up in some sex scandal, they move towards the group that is most forgiving of such events and lose themselves in the shift. Russel Brand and Musk are two examples.

          Knowledge seeking for the sake of knowledge seeking is something totally different. It requires accepting one knows nothing and despite all the knowledge gather now knows less. It requires a humility that can be uncomfortable.

          Few end up adding significant new knowledge. Those who do maintain a humbleness as the recognize the efforts who came before them.

          Those who pretend become exploiters, it takes little effort to reveal their search was only ever for loopholes. Those people are another form of extremist.