Critical Thinking a Lost Art

[blaseblah]

The average person has always been pretty stupid but the rise of the internet and social media has allowed them to congregate and interact with other idiots.

If you were an idiot pre internet you were less likely to share your opinion for fear of being ridiculed. With the internet now idiots can interact with other idiots and it reinforces their own beliefs.

 

[Prefect]

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.

No. The ease of information has allowed a lot of people to believe they are capable of discrediting experts. It gets ridiculous when some two bit believes expert knowledge can be replaced with a google search or a buzzfeed article. A significant portion of the population believes disregarding expert opinion is thinking critically or not being a sheep when in actuality it is just silly how they think they have any basis of even having an educated opinion on most topics. Take for example how the previous president silenced the CDC, an agency whose sole mission is to study diseases and how to control them. Instead of just going with the CDC's plan, we got "here is my 5 week plan of how I will clear up the pandemic by Easter" of 2020.

 

[Simian Raticus]

I tend to agree that it's not something that's ever been practiced by the masses.

And it's probably somewhat more common now than it's ever been just because more people are educated.

It's just that we're living in a moment when the dumbest fucks among us are the most convinced of their own intelligence, and they're very loud about it.

More often than not when I hear the term critical thinking, it's coming from a self-professed critical thinker, who is actually just a contrarian who mistakenly believes that's what critical thinking is.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

Does this seem to be the case?

100%, well in my experience at least. I went back to university a few years back (MBA) and it dawned on me, they're not trying to teach you to think for yourself, they try to teach you to think like they do.

 

[Texan6533]

Yes, I’ve noticed over the past 10 years or so of teaching, my students seem to be becoming less and less capable of independent thought. They expect white and black answers when the world isn’t that way.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

I think it's honestly always been this way. It's just now you hear about it because of social media. It's way easier to be told what to think and parrot it back then to sit and critically think for yourself. It's why religion is so popular. It already has all of the answers. Your life is figured out and has a purpose.

If these people could talk, you would be hearing the same type of rhetoric that we hear now just adjusted for the time period:

 

[RogerB08]

If it weren't lost, we'd all be democrats.

 

[deucesarewild]

Critical thinking is like a unicorn these day. Can't seem to find it. Strange, with all of this information, media, and intensely emotional social agendas out there, critical thinking could really save us, but, no. It's easier to be short-sighted and thoughtless, and those aforementioned mediums actually make these shortcomings worse, rather than give opportunity to question them.

It's easier to be afraid of words and refuse to think or learn deeply.

 

[Alphaboy]

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

I agree with everything you said except "hive mind is at an all time high".

People have always been conforming herd animals, that's one of our defining traits as a social species.

 

[MicroBrew]

Not lost, but burried nder SJW and other BS.

Think how Hitchenson would be received by the SJW. Look at Dawkins and the promuslim crowd.

In Dawkins' case I think it is less about critical thinking and more to do with Muslim groups and their liberal allies smearing Dawkins because he isn't politically correct about Islam the religon. These folks wouldn't give a shit if Dawkins only critiqued Christianity.

 

[Batjester]

You can eliminate the "critical" part of the title.

 

[Gamer2k4]

If it weren't lost, we'd all be democrats.

"A young man who isn't a liberal has no heart. An old man who isn't a conservative has no brain."

- Kenny Florian, probably

 

[Drain Bamage]

Racism! Critical thinking is a construct of the white patriarchy and places minority children at an inherant disadvantage.

 

[Gamer2k4]

I think it's honestly always been this way. It's just now you hear about it because of social media. It's way easier to be told what to think and parrot it back then to sit and critically think for yourself.

If these people could talk, you would be hearing the same type of rhetoric that we hear now just adjusted for the time period:

Absolutely. The more things change, the more things stay the same. You can find cartoons about political correctness and hypersensitivity from the 80s, every generation has its "kids these days" issues, there's always some moral panic, and at least as far back as the 40s (and probably earlier) satirical writers recognized that media's purpose is not to inform, but to narrate (regardless of which political position the journalists hold). Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson were Trump-like Presidents long before Trump took office, yet everyone acts like everything is always happening for the first time ever and is always the worst it's ever been.

The older I get - and I'm not that old - the more I realize there's nothing worth going nuts over. It's all happened before, it'll all happen again, and the world will keep on spinning regardless. That world leader you think is the worst will be replaced in a few years by someone the other side thinks is the worst, and then again, and again. Just live your own life, do the best you can, and don't worry about all the noise.

It's why religion is so popular. It already has all of the answers. Your life is figured out and has a purpose.

...and here's where I'm going to have to disagree with you. Any religion that's comfortable and has all the answers is no good. If there is a God (and I believe there is), something so astronomically crucial as religion/theology will never be easy or tidy.

 

[A.S. Deep]

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.

It's weird, because I agree with your entire post but still have the opposite takeaway as you, that critical thinking is at an all-time high. For example:

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?

REALLY good point, since as a pharmacist I have to interpret studies and also interpreted a bunch throughout my schooling. The amount of corruption, "math magic," and downright shittiness that goes on in many studies is both evil and hilarious. Which is why I'm glad regular people have the option now to review the methodologies of these studies.

Think about it... back in the day, the only people who could access studies were people in the industry. But now, regular people can see the studies and their methods, learn everything that goes into study review, and then interpret those studies on their own. Do these non-professionals often come to idiotic conclusions themselves when doing this? 100% haha.

However, they have the option to do this now. They can learn anything for new free via the internet + learn from decentralized sources who aren't beholden to industry bullshit and corruption. Unfortunately, most people just blindly follow others, and that goes for people who blindly trust experts as well as those who fully trust decentralized sources. But at least now we have all this info to understand and interpret, regardless of the topic. This is why the few genuine critical thinkers will thrive now, while before they were stuck with the same limited info as everyone else.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

...and here's where I'm going to have to disagree with you. Any religion that's comfortable and has all the answers is no good. If there is a God (and I believe there is), something so astronomically crucial as religion/theology will never be easy or tidy.

Easy in the sense that it gives you most of the answers. What happens when we die? What are the rules to live by? If I do something wrong, I just pray for forgiveness. If someone I love dies, they are now in a better place. There's always hope and sorry but a blissful ignorance to these people.

Meanwhile, I have to take personal responsibility for all of my actions. If someone dies, I have to process that they are gone forever and I will never see them again. I have one life to live and have to treasure and appreciate what I can. It's a tougher life to experience and most people aren't willing to even contemplate a life without God because it's uncomfortable

 

[RogerB08]

"A young man who isn't a liberal has no heart. An old man who isn't a conservative has no brain."

- Kenny Florian, probably

Yeah, I used to say that when I was younger and thought I was ahead of the curve by thinking I was a republican. Time and experience showed me that's all bullshit. Also, I think was Churchill.

 

[SammyPops]

In Dawkins' case I think it is less about critical thinking and more to do with Muslim groups and their liberal allies smearing Dawkins because he isn't politically correct about Islam the religon. These folks wouldn't give a shit if Dawkins only critiqued Christianity.

agreed, but isnt political correctness just the lack of critical thinking in so many ways?

 

[Diogenes of Sinope]

Does this seem to be the case?

There is very little you can do against brainwashing. we are all brainwashed by something in one way or another.

 

[Noodles03]

There is very little you can do against brainwashing. we are all brainwashed by something in one way or another.

I’m not sure if brainwashing is the proper word. I think we are influenced that steers our thought process.