Our Entire Civilization Is Fake And Stupid

submitted by [deleted] from caitlinjohnstone.substack.com

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[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

It is fake because people are stupid. Put in all those filter-bubbles and echo-chambers and this is what you get.

(You don't even need to put astroturf accounts or bots into this thing to "get" it.)

Proof: Imagine a friend of yours. Now realize that 50 % of all people walking this planet are more stupid than your friend is. And almost everyone carries a "smart"phone nowadays, enabling each person to express her personal (mostly copied from her "friends" often, sadly) flavor of opinion.

Confronting stupidity isn't as much a question of "intellect" nowadays. It is more a question of diligence, patience and resilience, imho.

These three attributes are major prerequisites to confront mass-spread, mass-upvoted stupidity, imho.

[–]Fireslinger 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I think kindness is important as well, especially in these times. Just seeing that it's not 100% their fault that they're stupid. We're all being propagandized from cradle to grave, and the history we're told has been warped. Ukraine being the latest example.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I can follow your reasoning. But also, i don't "cancel" people when there is "just" a difference of opinion. I believe it can be very fascinating if other people let you look through their eyes. If they look for themselves genuinely, though.

Besides: Sadly, the majority of people nowadays doesn't draw the conclusion that being exposed to propaganda almost 24/7 implies digging for yourself. If you actually want to own the point of view, you have.

[–]Fireslinger 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That's a solid point. To add, I've seen that 'opinions' have taken on this intense emotional energy. Many people seem to lack the ability to entertain someone else's opinion, without judging it harshly. It's a huge problem in our society. And as you mentioned, the opinions themselves are fabricated, they don't even belong to the person. Opinions are deliberately fabricated to spark an emotional response, and we're unfortunately seeing that worsen each day.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's becoming huge again, so to say. Shoot the messenger instead of listening to the message.

That is why corporate-run propaganda-platforms are thriving. The younger generation is born into a world where self-image is quite dependent on their accounts on these. They just adapted. They just don't know the world of the 1990ies, and they certainly can't remember it.

Nowadays, everyone with a "smart"phone believes him/her-self to be a queen or king of something. Even when it's in fact only just another instawhore-thot or mobile-game-"lord". (Or a bot.)

In my older days, I even invested the effort of combing people's references. But this has become rather pointless.

People showing off on corporate-run platforms are self-disabling wage-slaves for most parts anyway, and when I sense some actual merits behind some messages:

These people are hiding mostly, keeping themselves as "invisible" as possible. For the same reasons, I am.

And after a while, you get to meet some of them anyway on an annual basis. Here, e.g.