The media can babble and try to shape the message but ultimately isn't it up to the individual to make a decision. I'm amazed more people can't see it for what it is.

Get both?

Why does it amaze you that people are stupid?

mostly a case of willful denial.

I guess I had more faith in people but I'm quickly being proven wrong

And too lazy to think for themselves

Sorry to say but many of our fellow Americans have been conditioned from childhood to be government loving socialists. Only when they actually get into the real world after school (high school or college) that many(not all) see that much of what the media, schools etc has been spoon feeding them is a bunch of bull and the real world doesn't work like they thought.

Really people don't give a shit unless something will effect them personally, so unless you impact their wallet or their lifestyle in a bad way they won't care. Even if you do some people refuse to believe that it's happening to them and will continue to believe the bull.

This is why I say the people won't care about the ACA affecting them until they have bank accounts seized from failure to pay the fines, or when grandma or grandpa is on the hospital bed and you get some hospital administrator coming in and telling family that due to the regulations we cannot prolong life or do this procedure due to their age. They think its all free, just like the free money from a tax return...

Same reason people aren't up in arms about fuel efficiency standards being stupid ridiculous instead of a balanced approach, it doesn't effect them. Now in 15 - 20 years when they can't buy the truck or car they wanted...

The average person probably doesn't give a shit about guns to the detail we do on this board, but by god they will care when terrorists start killing people en mass in America then they will want a gun...

What about the insane zero tolerance / over regulated society we have become? No one cares about it until it happens to them and they are spending thousands to fight some bullshit in court...

How about electricity rates, yea we want clean air but the extreme of the EPA will make rates skyrocket, and people don't get upset because it doesn't effect them... yet.

Summary TL:DR; Until shit starts effecting people in a personal way no one will care.

Look at the 2 main Presidential candidates for an accurate reflection of how very little of the population has any capacity for critical thinking.

No, it is because they are complicit.

Human decision making is strongly dependent on the environment.

If you're religious maybe you believe humans are magical acausal decision makers.

If you're a specialist immersed in your field, you can probably make good decisions about that.

But over a sufficiently large group, humans are programmable meat machines.

Blank slate proponents like to point to the past failures of blank-slaters, from communists to neocons, to justify free will.

They missed that genetics and historical custom are also levers.

Free will is a shit explanation for blue tribe vs red tribe. Mapping the original ethnic groups of the US, OTOH, and the implications of their attendant cultures explains the red-blue fight almost perfectly.

Our lives have become infinity more complicated that in the past, no doubt about that.


Many, many just feel overwhelmed by living. They don't WANT to have to think about things like politics, and stuff they feel they can have to effect on.  This is by design from the politicians, they want the issues so muddled, so convoluted that folks just surrender to them.  This is what you are seeing.  Far too many folks simply want someone else to handle it for them.  This coupled with a complete ignorance of the system of government we have, again, by design, is where we are.


Consider that there are, really are, undecided voters at this point (mind gets blown).

 

Welcome to Costco, I love you

There's a reason critical thinking isn't taught in school.

Is it really that hard?

The median stupid person is half as smart than the most average person. Conversely, the median smart person is twice as smart as the median stupid person. Presuming of course the average person is @ the 50 percentile.

Based on my made up numbers, there are three stupid/average people for every smart person.

That being said, I'm pretty average.

And most geniuses that I've met are pretty stupid in one aspect or another.

What does that tell you?

Now you're getting it.

Proud of you........I guess.

Just remember, Genius has its limits - stupidity, not so much...



yes, the average person is happy living in a cocoon of total ignorance.

You're all fucked up?

Media is agenda driven.  Only six major corporations own 90% of all the MSM; which is why it cannot be trusted to provide objective reporting.  Faux really showe its colors with its anti-Don agenda.  Let their ratings slide and let them fall by the wayside.  Who gives a fuq.

The Fourth Estate has failed society and is no better than Pravda of the Soviet Union.

The internet, while wondrous and life enhancing, has it's price.

I think we are witnessing that price being paid in the form of anti social behavior, human isolation, narcissism, and the inability to think critically and opting for group think instead.

The need for the on line communities "approval" has infiltrated weaker minds and caused them to further exacerbate already fragile psyches.

I do not believe that you can teach people to think.

You either can or you can't. (think)

I used to get into shouting arguments with academics over this.

Right, you either know math or not. No one can teach you math. Or anything else.

People believe what they want to believe, and when asked to choose between their beliefs and the facts, the majority will choose their beliefs, every time.

They are stupid.

most liberals are insulated from the hardship and mayhem the policies they want and support directly cause.

They are then lied to by politicians and the media that it's the free market that causes the hardship. This, in conjunction with the fact they are told that not enough of their favored policies were enacted because nasty conservatives blocked the measures, cements their thought process.

Bottom line, they are capable of critical thinking, however the facts they are "thinking" off of are critically flawed.

ISTJs tend to be fact oriented, and they are alleged to be 13% of the population.