skells @skells@qoto.org

@coyote @11112011 @ringo @Oblivia @p @Zerglingman it's is just a phase

@laurel @p there's a party making noises in the EU called Volt, seeking to elect in separate countries (including the UK) to push for closer union of the EU.

Thought I'd give them a hearing - one of their policies was to push for a "digital revolution" which caught my interest. without breaking stride, they described this revolution as basically a phone app with governance, identity and medical aspects all rolled into one.

Largely funded by Soros ofc.

Regarding education, I've been reading a bit around the subject and - from a first pass, not a rigorous examination - you can trace a good deal of cultural decay and malaise to Prussian education reforms after their defeat by Napoleon. These were taken up largely in America towards the end of the 19th century and it's likely bled through to the rest of the west.

The focus was explicitly upon teaching to obey orders and not to think critically beyond the bounds of the specialisation they were being educated for. I think you can make a case that a lot of the concerns Nietzsche had stemmed from this change that was happening around him during his lifetime. There's a shift away from holistic, philosophically founded critical thinking as the core skill, towards the learning of subjects.

The idea that Germans are rule obsessed seems to be precisely an outcome from this education system - before they were seen as much more reflective, philosophical and enthusiastic.

I think the problem was that the elites ended up beholden to their own system really - in devaluing their subjects they eventually devalued and undermined their own skills. Now all we're left with are sorry looking corporate suits and the scarred geniuses that do break through - think Musk and Jobs, men with vision but who paid a price for clawing their way to the top.

Life has always been tough but I don't think the average person has been quite so intellectually maimed since the Dark Ages, perhaps ever. The irony is that we're almost certainly one of the most "educated" eras of history.

@iskandrian have you any thoughts on Gabbard?

@Shiroyasha

Don't worry son, Uncle Sam got your b̶a̶c̶k̶ bags

@11112011 nah they're just the only ones not selling

@p meant to respond more closely to your point but basically just ranted on my bugbears lol, my bad

@p

I'm with you, and also guilty of spreading questionable click bait amongst closed groups with friends. Thankfully they give me a lot of shit for this so it keeps my feet on the ground in general.

On the flip side, and something that has become palpably worse with Corona, is the politicisation of authoritative sources of research. Hydrochloriquine and Ivermectin suppression are signal examples, although their efficacy is beside the point of this conversation. Both could be useless (something I personally doubt) but this fails to explain the lack of open, transparent scientific discourse on the subject.

This general trend of information control is, I suspect, the cause of the apparent upswing in conspiracy theory and other bullshit. My own view is that such theories and viral social media takes give a noise floor and counterweight to viewpoints with vast marketing and public relations departments. The average bloke on the street might not be able to tell you *why* he believes Covid is a vast global conspiracy to inject 5G into his arm, but his actions generally form a solid bulwark against the most egregious crimes of the state and it's cadres. These conspiracy theories are often symbolically close enough to the powers in play that they can serve as a decent enough risk aversion strategies.

To your point, I think most self aware males who look at the above graph can quickly intuit that it's bullshit - what stories pedos conconct to justify themselves needn't occupy too much thought - although I appreciate that you'll have to deal with far more of this crap than most people, p, so kudos and, frankly, sympathies.

What bothers me is how susceptible our societies are to the "higher" swindles - who really believes that tiktok conspiracy theorists are more of a threat than journals like Nature being selective about what they publish in the name of political expediency? In educated circles if it's not published in a highly ranked journal then it's not worthy of consideration. There is zero willingness to engage in critical thinking beyond googling the counter of a non-published claim.

I've had masters students in molecular biology send me papers about deaths caused by ivermectin, clearly showing that such risks are only caused by extremely high exposure to the tropical parasites it is used to treat. These are intelligent, well meaning friends and they simply don't have the skills/desire to move beyond the walled garden and think critically about the information they are given. These are the people who develop the technologies and run the businesses of tomorrow - and you're telling me that Sharon from the estate sharing dodgy anti-vax memes is a problem?

The appearance of legitimacy indeed.

To be clear, we could all do with being far more circumspect with the data we consume and the care with which we draw conclusions. Yet my concern is the ready willingness of our educated class to be spoonfed it's opinions, rather than the fairly heartening tendency of the less educated to be a little trigger happy calling bullshit on the official line.

@coolboymew "coordinated social harm" is the most Orwellian phrase I've heard in a while

And it's not been a good year for Orwellian phrases