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me_irl (lemmy.radio)
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[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

"More people should think more critically"

Monkey's Paw Curls

Everyone gets into fights with you because they're second-guessing every damned little thing

Nobody gets anything done because they're overanalyzing

Nothing actually improves, because nobody's priors changed and they all come up the same conclusions anyway

Heuristics exist for a reason. You're not supposed to be doing deep analysis all the time. It's exhausting and does not reliably improve your life unless you're generating real new useful insights.

If you can't trust anyone else, you can't rely on common wisdom or instinct, and you're constantly in positions to make costly errors because of trick questions, critical thinking isn't going to save you.

[-] TotallyWorthLife@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The lack of it is not a trend, but a consequence of a deliberate effort to keep it that way.

I want to believe capacity for empathy and sympathy (both for good and bad) are inherent to us all (with some exceptions), even if clouded or even manipulated by the lack of critical thinking, which I do consider a skill one has to train (and not related to being smart/intelligent or dumb/stupid).

I believe, if we all had enough critical thinking (I know I don't fully have it, even if it has gotten better with time), we would have been working together for each other instead of fighting and fucking over each other for the benefit of people in positions of power.

So, hoping for an "empathy and critical thinking" trend isn't going to save us the same way hoping for a "cancer suddenly disappears" trend won't save someone with cancer. It is like this by design, not by coincidence, and we must do a deliberate effort to change it.

As suggestions I know of or have heard of:

  • Bear in mind others might have gone through shit that made them the way they are right now (different culture, different conditions, trauma, indoctrination, etc.). To realize that no one is inherently evil, but the conditions we are given (our genes + our enviroment) shape us, has helped me stop hating others for their way of being, and instead wonder what led them to be like that. I never became more or less empathethic, I just changed my POV.

  • Read and write more to train the brain to take information, process it, and send it in or out, more effectively. And be more mindful of what you do write. (It also helps train the brain against degenerative diseases. Won't stop them, but might still slow them).

  • Check facts on more than one source to avoid biases, left-out info, or straight up lies or manipulation. Don't just read headlines and keep scrolling. Helps get a wider view of the world, know what goes on more precisely, and, like reading, trains the brain. (Also, bear in mind some articles are more about giving opinions or uncomplete information, than stating proven facts)

How do I make a profit from that though?

[-] BonsaiBoo@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago

The funny part is it would be more profitable than what's happening now as the ultra wealthy have convinced a majority of voters to keep wages low, keep taxes low for the wealthy, higher for the non wealthy, turn the US into a purely service and gig economy, and so now the economic system is slowing and grinding to a halt as fewer and fewer people can participate in all sectors, from necessities to leisure spending.

[-] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Exactly, if an economy is an engine then money is the oil; if it pools (by a few people hoarding it) then there's less flowing through to lubricate the engine turnover and it ceases up.

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Need to open those reservoirs and help the gears turn

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 day ago
[-] Aneb@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Might as well be a geek too!! Lammme

[-] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 day ago

I have never heard a person talk about empathy introspectively. Invariably it has been about how someone else needs to be more empathetic, and almost always, the speaker would hypothetically be the beneficiary of this increased empathy.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

I have never heard a person talk about empathy introspectively

Happens more often than you might think, but rarely in online discourse or Internet blowharding.

[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 18 points 1 day ago

People actually subscribe to AI. As such, the likelihood decreases daily.

[-] Kanda@reddthat.com 5 points 1 day ago

They pay for chatbot? The thing everyone is furious to get when they're trying to reach customer service?

[-] elbiter@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

The current global trend of fascism and cheap individualism is not spontaneous. It has been promoted with billions of dollars.

[-] Aneb@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Fuck there's trillionares now

[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago

I hope she’s prepared for disappointment

[-] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

Modern hot takes always gotta come with a picture of a rando.

[-] Clutter@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

Well there are currently places where that is indeed a thing. Just not in the USA...

[-] nialv7@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

everyone thinks themselves as empathic and thinking critically, in their own mind, it's everyone else that is wrong...

[-] Rothe@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

Elon Musk literally said he thinks empathy is a weakness. So no, the greedy ghouls running our modern civilisation don't think they are empathic, and they have no desire to be. And a lot of poor temporarily-embarrassed billionaires emulates them in that regard.

Critical thinking must include critically questioning one's own thoughts and behaviors as well. That's the only way forward.

Question everything, especially the things you've always thought were true. People would be surprised if they realized just how many false ideas and urban legends they've been taught by people they thought were credible.

[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago

The person who downvoted you clearly doesn't like to think critically about their own assumptions or be reminded that they should...

[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

No, I guarantee you some people don't think about those things at all, or are even actively hostile towards them as concepts.

And then there are people who only focus on one at the expense of the other, under the assumption that they're mutually exclusive.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 points 1 day ago

In my mind it's a very specific set of people who are wrong, and I do not have empathetic thoughts towards them.

[-] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

If you can't empathize with your enemy, you'll constantly be surprised by their actions.

[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 19 hours ago

Nah, I just have to assume they're going to do whatever the worst thing is and I'm always right.

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A nice idea but highly unlikely.

[-] FatTony@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Don't worry guys I'll comment something relevant as soon as I find out what's going on in that picture.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

What am I looking at? Is that arm part of that lady's body? Why is she sideways?

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

She's holding the hair on her left side with her right hand.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

Is she falling down or something??

[-] Squirrelanna 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

She's in the middle of putting herself in a choke hold in the hopes of waking up during the era of empathy and critical thinking.

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

Ah yes. Thanks: 3

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

My first impression is that she's sitting in a car, but it's hard to say for sure!

[-] Flower@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

Step 1: start a new economy based on a different kind of money

[-] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

I'll 3D print you some cute sewing buttons in exchange for a week's supply of oats.

[-] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

I'm skeptical how can i make money off this?

[-] solidheron@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Pfff nah I'm flinging my shit like a chimp that lost their mate

[-] zxqwas@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Has any of the trends so far required a lot of effort to do?

[-] aberama44@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah. It would probably be like, think critically. Do you actually see the earths curvature? Does it make sense that humans decend from an ancient primate?? Just think for your self.

And then people "think" and forget to calculate in that they could just be ignorant on the subject matter.

As someone that makes things and stuff that needs to account for curvature. I would advise to educate your self on the topic. Grasp the basic consepts before thinking too much. That comes later.

[-] N0t_5ure@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Yes, the exact opposite of MAGA.

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Who knows, maybe that part of the 90s will come back too…

[-] DrBob@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

WHO MAKES THE MONEY??!!?!

[-] endless_nameless@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

I swear people who talk like this are inadvertently signaling that they are sociopaths

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 1 points 1 day ago

Tough luck. TV spelled the end of intellectual elections. Look up how Dwight Eisenhower got one over his democrat opponent in 1952. He used commercial jingles and hired Mad Men era advertising writers, his opponent bought 30 minute time slots to explain his positions in a rational calm manner. Guess who won?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

You should’ve seen the trashtalk in newspapers before TV was widespread.

Political muckraking has been a thing since forever

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 1 points 1 day ago

Oh I am aware. But like that?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Worse. On some occasions they even killed each other.

[-] lugal@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

Or the simulation of both

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this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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me_irl

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