What Happened to... [moved]

[tenyari]

What amazes me is the IQ drop when otherwise intelligent people go over to the Politics forum - that's the bit I don't understand at all. But then, American politics, looking in from the outside, is a bit... strange.

We've been conditioned into it.

I used to listen to a podcast that was a pair talking current issues in tech and politics. Back before the Pandemic and working remote - when I had a 2-hour commute each way to drive only 15 miles because Silicon Valley traffic... An investor turned professor and a political journalist turned tech-groupie. One of them made the comment, in a talk about AI, that the 'singularity' has already happened. Skynet already won, the Borg already assimilated us. It didn't win by being smarter than us, but by being dumber. Social Media and other like elements appeal to the inner dinosaur instinct brain inside all of us. Put us in an addictive 'circle jerk' between our Freudian Ego and Id. Humanity as a whole can't get enough of it. And it's making us more and more polarized, and less and less intelligent in our choices. the more "rational and unbiased" we think we are now, the more illogical and biased we likely actually are.

We're all being radicalized into psychotic corners.

I started to disengage from my own political leanings when I learned that. I still have my biases, but I try to always keep them in my conscious mind, lest my unconscious mind steer me to doing or saying stupid. I try to avoid social media - but that's increasingly impossible as even non-social media these days is just full of comments about whatever is going on in social media...

So any political discussion area, is going to be where we just lose our ability to be what we once considered normal.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

We've been conditioned into it.

I used to listen to a podcast that was a pair talking current issues in tech and politics. Back before the Pandemic and working remote - when I had a 2-hour commute each way to drive only 15 miles because Silicon Valley traffic... An investor turned professor and a political journalist turned tech-groupie. One of them made the comment, in a talk about AI, that the 'singularity' has already happened. Skynet already won, the Borg already assimilated us. It didn't win by being smarter than us, but by being dumber. Social Media and other like elements appeal to the inner dinosaur instinct brain inside all of us. Put us in an addictive 'circle jerk' between our Freudian Ego and Id. Humanity as a whole can't get enough of it. And it's making us more and more polarized, and less and less intelligent in our choices. the more "rational and unbiased" we think we are now, the more illogical and biased we likely actually are.

We're all being radicalized into psychotic corners.

I started to disengage from my own political leanings when I learned that. I still have my biases, but I try to always keep them in my conscious mind, lest my unconscious mind steer me to doing or saying stupid. I try to avoid social media - but that's increasingly impossible as even non-social media these days is just full of comments about whatever is going on in social media...

So any political discussion area, is going to be where we just lose our ability to be what we once considered normal.

I think this only tells part of the story. Study after study shows that, regardless of which party is in power, there is a consistent and significant disconnect between legislation and the priorities of the general public. Basically, no matter who you vote for, they legislate for the people who can afford lobbyists, campaign contributions, and PACs. While social media is far from democratic, it allows people to imagine that their voices are being heard, while simultaneously encouraging radicalism and conspiracy theories.

Cognitive dissonance being what it is, people will be more inclined to believe fantastic, elaborate narratives about shadowy cabals than face the reality that the entire system is working as designed to serve the interests of whoever has the most money.