Critical Thinking a Lost Art

[Herwald]

I don't know if it's critical thinking. There just seems to be a ton of fear of any kind of conflict (and resolution/innovation, as a result), lack of real life experience dealing with people and understanding of their psychology, a lot of naivety and desperate desire to cling on to basic comfort and remain in the majority even if it's blatantly self harming long term.

But, if you go back and read history, it doesn't seem like people were much different in the past. Critical thinking might be p4p the same amount.

Main problem, really, is just lack of parents and leaders. There are very few grown ups left. Government and the worship of bureaucracy has kind of taken that role over. But, again, history's full of even more hard core governments, so who knows. Just live your life the best you can.

 

[LATEXXX COMMANDO]

Political dog and pony bs aside, look at the state of our world.

Yes sir, yes ma’am. Tell me what do. What I know.

 

[HARRISON_3]

Critical thinking

 

[TheTickG]

I don’t know but if sherdog has taught me anything, it’s some pink haired women studies professor that is at fault.

And her father's fault for not raising her properly.
And the government's fault for subsidizing her derangement.
And her father's fault again for allowing the government to subsidize her existence.

 

[Sanctus]

IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn't bode well for humanity (nbcnews.com)

IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn't bode well for humanity
An intelligence crisis could undermine our problem-solving capacities and dim the prospects of the global economy


It's one of the best times to rule. At least for the last 30 years.

They just say "jump", and not only people immediately obey, they become their soldiers by trying to enforce on others what they have been told.

Just look at the pandemic. We have been lied since the beggining (masks, no masks, no laboratory, laboratory, no passports, passports) and yet people not only trust them, they turn against anyone who question the inconsistencies.

FFS, we have an industry completely free of responsability for something they produce and we have to inject in our bodies. Not only that, they make billions with that.
Does anything sound at least suspicious? Oh no, take the vaccine and STFU


It's like Eric Clapton said, what happend to the rebels of the past???

 

[Noodles03]

Information I get, but you have to be able to tell when a Yahoo story is exaggerating the facts to get clicks, ya know?

That can be tricky especially when the emotion takes over and the ability to discern information goes out the window.

 

[Alphaboy]

Every generation thinks their problems are unique.

 

[BjPenn2017]

You critically think and you get called a conspiracy theorist, or people get emotional and can’t handle it and think there stupid emotional outburst trumps everything else. Hive mind mentality is at an all time high, hell you can even see it on this forum. Lmao

 

[A.S. Deep]

Does this seem to be the case?

I'm going to disagree with nearly everyone here and say that critical thinking is at all-time historic HIGH.

This is the LEAST superstitious time in history. If you think people are too easily programmed by their environment now, just go back 100 years or so. Yes, MOST people are just products of their environments aka NPCs. However, the vast amount of information at our disposal + the increasing decentralization of information has allowed people to think for themselves more than any other point in history.

People are just blinded by the endless onslaught of negative news, which is something our ancestors never had to deal with. It makes it seem that the world is ending and that everyone has lost their mind. Which is why I'm a big proponent of ZERO social media and news unless you're making money from it or using it for some other specific outcome.

 

[A.S. Deep]

Every generation thinks their problems are unique.

People will complain that critical thinking is at an all-time low when people were accusing each other of witchcraft just a few centuries ago lol.

I'm reminded of that famous quote from ancient Greece, I believe, where a philosopher complains how misbehaved and bad the young generation is. Human nature has stayed the same, and I'd argue that critical thinking is higher than ever due to how much info we can access + all the decentralized sources at our disposal.

 

[A.S. Deep]

Humans were never good at critical thinking. Evolution built us with cognitive biases and heuristics, tendencies in behaviour and emotions that help us in our survival, but don't necessarily help us perceive reality as it is. Clear thinking was never the measuring stick. People with higher cognitive skills were likely selected because intelligence was useful for survival. Basically it's one phenotype among many, and it's a side-effect that we're able to engage in critical thinking. But there are many ways to play the game of evolution, e.g. social influence, hard work, athletic skills, physical appearance, leadership abilities, deceitful and aggressive behaviour, risk-taking, etc. There are always going to be a lot of dumb people because they passed through the sieve of evolution using means other than cognitive skills.

Really good point. People applaud critical thinking, but you really don't *need* it. It's just a tool. A really good one, but simply one tool out of many.

Edit: I believe people applaud critical thinking because you can't objectively measure it. As a result, it's easily for people to claim they have it, since you can't really prove them wrong. Even with a trait like charisma, you can somewhat measure it by just watching someone speak.

 

[Alphaboy]

People will complain that critical thinking is at an all-time low when people were accusing each other of witchcraft just a few centuries ago lol.

I'm reminded of that famous quote from ancient Greece, I believe, where a philosopher complains how misbehaved and bad the young generation is. Human nature has stayed the same, and I'd argue that critical thinking is higher than ever due to how much info we can access + all the decentralized sources at our disposal.

 

[shunyata]

Yeah, look at the political landscape of this country. That's all you need to see.

Yup, multiple state boards of education have gone out of their way for decades to remove critical thinking from their curriculums.

Something about it being a dangerous concept that could cause children to question parents and church leaders.

 

[minute bull]

 

[Deleted member 110072]

I would argue the biggest weakness to critical thinking these day(in the west anyway) isnt deference to authority anymore but rather egotism. I think thats really been the preffered method of control for several decades now, since the rise of Reaganism and the cult of individualism.

They will think critically of sources that play against their ego but won't apply the same thinking to those that play to it.

 

[Iroh]

I'm going to disagree with nearly everyone here and say that critical thinking is at all-time historic HIGH.

This is the LEAST superstitious time in history. If you think people are too easily programmed by their environment now, just go back 100 years or so. Yes, MOST people are just products of their environments aka NPCs. However, the vast amount of information at our disposal + the increasing decentralization of information has allowed people to think for themselves more than any other point in history.

People are just blinded by the endless onslaught of negative news, which is something our ancestors never had to deal with. It makes it seem that the world is ending and that everyone has lost their mind. Which is why I'm a big proponent of ZERO social media and news unless you're making money from it or using it for some other specific outcome.

Nah, more information doesn't equal people thinking for themselves. If anything people tend to accept information as true more easily, which means that they in fact let others think for them. Critical thinking is not about gathering information, but understanding information. People like to quote studies, but do they understand those studies? Do they understand the process that goes into it? Do they understand the corporate world that's involved? Do they question the integrity and competency of those involved in the studies? Do they understand the nuances of the studies? Or do they just accept it because it comes from what they understand to be the authority or the expert and therefor not question it? Do they test the veracity of any given bit of info they come across?

Life is much more comfortable right now in the west than most of recent history, and people want to hold on to that comfort and not question whether it comes at a cost, because that might make them uncomfortable, ironically.

 

[rj144]

Yes unfortunately.

I can understand physical laziness but people are so mentally lazy now.

If they need an opinion, solution, or information they just Google it. But they have no ability to discern fact from fiction.

Teachers now think it's their job to teach their own political slant rather than teach the kids how to think critically for themselves.

I teach a science at a university. Most of my colleagues encourage critical thinking never mention anything political.

 

[TeTe]

Yup, multiple state boards of education have gone out of their way for decades to remove critical thinking from their curriculums.

Something about it being a dangerous concept that could cause children to question parents and church leaders.

People gravitate to one extreme or another, far left or far right. They read out of the same playbook. God forbid people take things on a case by case basis or try to understand grey areas.

 

[Iroh]

The fact that 9/10 times when I question things on SD, people see it as me suggesting that what I question is untrue shows that they aren't really comfortable with critical thought. People need to be eased into the question, a lot of the time, or they get defensive.

 

[shunyata]

People gravitate to one extreme or another, far left or far right. They read out of the same playbook. God forbid people take things on a case by case basis or try to understand grey areas.

I'm always running into the question at work, "what x should we do if y?" and forever answering "well, it depends on the context, what exactly is happening?"