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Believing the unbelievable

ricksfolly

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During threatening times people seem to forget common sense and see every new disclosure as a threat. That's why reasonable people tend to believe the unbelievable like...

Believing economists and politicians can predict the future, Believing our intelligence can find and neutralize all the al qaeda terrorists, and believing we can force our kind of democracy on both Iraq and Afghanistan.

ricksfolly
 
If someone believes something, it's no longer unbelievable, is it?
 
During threatening times people seem to forget common sense and see every new disclosure as a threat. That's why reasonable people tend to believe the unbelievable like...

Believing economists and politicians can predict the future, Believing our intelligence can find and neutralize all the al qaeda terrorists, and believing we can force our kind of democracy on both Iraq and Afghanistan.

ricksfolly

Basic human emotions like fear and greed powerfully guide the actions of people. One of those actions is the strong ability to deny reality and act like everything is normal. People do it in their interpersonal relationships and they do it when faced with political realities. Can you blame them? The world is pretty effed up and most people are just trying to live their lives anyway they can; but it's getting harder and harder to live an insular existence with the way things are going.

If leaders come along and tell them a convenient story, even if it's transparent, many will want to accept it because it further excuses their denial.
 
During threatening times people seem to forget common sense and see every new disclosure as a threat. That's why reasonable people tend to believe the unbelievable like...

Believing economists and politicians can predict the future, Believing our intelligence can find and neutralize all the al qaeda terrorists, and believing we can force our kind of democracy on both Iraq and Afghanistan.

ricksfolly

You mean - Tinkerbell is NOT alive?:tink:
 
Maybe to that person, but one person is not a consensus.

ricksfolly

However if a majority of experts, become a consensus on something then it is up to those currenty disbelieving it to take another look, E.G. unbelievable as it is there are people who STILL think the world is flat
 
I think the problem is that we too easily believe people with credible titles, positions, and degrees. I think it starts sort of a chain reaction when one credible person comes up with a theory and other people adhere to, then you have more and more people who seem credible believing something that wasn't ever fact-checked in the first place. Especially when a theory or concept plants its self in an entire field of study. So it's hard to tell what's really credible and what's not sometimes.

Like I remember I was watching this left-wing psycho movie "The Yes Men". These nut jobs were trying to tell us how the whole concept of a free market was the result of a think-tink involving figures like Milton Friedman and that it's just a fad idea. That really scared me.
 
They've been releasing convicts from the Texas Prisons again because of an expert that owned and operated dogs trained to sniff out perpetrators. In these cases the testimony of the dog expert was the only evidence that the juries used to convict. Junk science sucks for those incarcerated by it.
 
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However if a majority of experts, become a consensus on something then it is up to those currenty disbelieving it to take another look, E.G. unbelievable as it is there are people who STILL think the world is flat

"If one man says you are a horse, you laugh. If two men say it, you begin to wonder. If three men say it, you buy a saddle." Arab anon

Seems like all a consensus needs is three.

ricksfolly
 
Basic human emotions like fear and greed powerfully guide the actions of people. One of those actions is the strong ability to deny reality and act like everything is normal. People do it in their interpersonal relationships and they do it when faced with political realities. Can you blame them? The world is pretty effed up and most people are just trying to live their lives anyway they can; but it's getting harder and harder to live an insular existence with the way things are going.

If leaders come along and tell them a convenient story, even if it's transparent, many will want to accept it because it further excuses their denial.

You've just about said it all, except why the majority believe bad news, as opposed to good news. The media is the main culprit of course, but I don't think it's a conspiracy, or anything like that, it's what the readers want, sells newspapers and TV spots. One thing for sure, that kind of negative reporting has a definite effect on the economy. Is it rampant masochism, paranoia, or also just another sign of the times?

ricksfolly
 
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