Hey interweb! I have been watching the increasing campaigns and mud slinging in preparation for the United States presidential elections next year. I'm not going to start political blogging, nor will I be stating any bias or preference, but something I have noticed is how much I hate the methods and reasoning abilities that the vast majority of people use to come to conclusions on important topics. It seems like everyone feels a compulsory need to immediately disagree with anything and everything. There is an extreme bandwagon effect with this need because as soon as someone comes up with a hyperbolic opinion and puts it on the interweb, 90% of people will take this opinion as their own because it makes them feel informed, intelligent, controversial, progressive, and active as a citizen.
I personally do not understand why it is beyond the mental and emotional capacity of many people to take it upon themselves to read deeply into a topic, think about what they have learned, and form their own opinion after some degree deliberation. Just because a person has read a few facebook status updates on a topic does not entitle him or her to an opinion, let alone the right to take any form of action regarding the topic. This includes speaking, which generally is not a problem for these people because they cannot continue a conversation on a topic for over 2 minutes because all they have to say is "it's stupid and wrong."
I'm not saying that I blame people for not being an expert on every possible topic, nor am I saying that people should be as big of a nerd as I am trying to learn something every second of every day. What I am saying is that if someone is going to have an opinion on something or take action in regard to sociopolitical topics then they need to use some semblance of intelligence that I know most people posses. If you don't do it for the sake of everyone around you, then please do it for yourself so that you do not appear like you should be in a zoo throwing feces against a wall. Don't allow yourself to be further evidence for de-evolution. Also, if you are going to argue your opinion, please know how to logically form a coherent argument.
This is something that I feel very strongly about and I have just deleted about 6 more paragraphs of this rant to keep the topic applicable to everyone who reads this. What do you think? Am I just a bitter pessimist or is there truly a noticeable decline in people's ability to think for themselves or even think in general?
I personally do not understand why it is beyond the mental and emotional capacity of many people to take it upon themselves to read deeply into a topic, think about what they have learned, and form their own opinion after some degree deliberation. Just because a person has read a few facebook status updates on a topic does not entitle him or her to an opinion, let alone the right to take any form of action regarding the topic. This includes speaking, which generally is not a problem for these people because they cannot continue a conversation on a topic for over 2 minutes because all they have to say is "it's stupid and wrong."
I'm not saying that I blame people for not being an expert on every possible topic, nor am I saying that people should be as big of a nerd as I am trying to learn something every second of every day. What I am saying is that if someone is going to have an opinion on something or take action in regard to sociopolitical topics then they need to use some semblance of intelligence that I know most people posses. If you don't do it for the sake of everyone around you, then please do it for yourself so that you do not appear like you should be in a zoo throwing feces against a wall. Don't allow yourself to be further evidence for de-evolution. Also, if you are going to argue your opinion, please know how to logically form a coherent argument.
This is something that I feel very strongly about and I have just deleted about 6 more paragraphs of this rant to keep the topic applicable to everyone who reads this. What do you think? Am I just a bitter pessimist or is there truly a noticeable decline in people's ability to think for themselves or even think in general?
We the people are in charge of electing our government officials, which almost seems like a terrible idea considering most people don't know what the hell they're doing. I mean, we form opinions based on 30 second TV commercials... how thoughtless and stupid is that?
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that people generally like to act like pack (pact?) animals. For some it is harder to think independently and annoyingly easier to be a follower. Great post.
ReplyDelete