Is humanity getting dumber and dumber? - Page 14 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15216124
QatzelOk wrote:People today watch up to 7 hours of entertainment per day, and the characters don't respond to them.

Why do people give so much time to this kind of monologue?

Because they can't connect with real people in their suburban enclaves?

And hasn't this seriously eroded human wisdom, yes or no?


Then why are you an unresponsive television? Especially while complaining about it?
#15216152
QatzelOk wrote:People today watch up to 7 hours of entertainment per day, and the characters don't respond to them.

Why do people give so much time to this kind of monologue?

Because they can't connect with real people in their suburban enclaves?

And hasn't this seriously eroded human wisdom, yes or no?

It's an example of a parasocial interaction . https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-parasocial-relationship-5210770 This is what I engage in when ,in large part due to the Covid outbreak, I have been able to virtually attend church services, for the first time in years . Previously , due in part to lack of automotive transportation , I had not been able to participate in religious activity , at a congregation of my choice . But now I can tune into a church's YouTube channel , where recordings of church services are uploaded . Even though I know that I likely will never get to meet and interact face to face with those in attendance , especially since they are located several states away , I still am able to receive encouragement , and inspiration from the experience . Under the circumstances , it is better than nothing .
#15216200
Deutschmania wrote:Even though I know that I likely will never get to meet and interact face to face with those in attendance , especially since they are located several states away , I still am able to receive encouragement , and inspiration from the experience . Under the circumstances , it is better than nothing .

It's been the same for many people, including me, attending courses and interviews and conferences in my living room. Like you say, it's better than nothing.

I miss the human contact, and not only do I miss it, I think that all the human contact jobs I've had have really contributed to my understanding of the world around me, and of human nature and desires.

So taking this away, has deprived us of both sanity, and our ability to learn effectively from one another.

This site - while a goldmine of readily available discussion about politics - isn't the same as discussing politics in an organized setting in a university or café.

I wonder if the increasing remoteness of Modern Lives is dumbing us down...

noemon wrote:Then why are you an unresponsive television? Especially while complaining about it?

I respond whenever I can. When I don't respond to a question in a thread, it's usually because I don't have the answer.

On the other hand, Netflix and TV series box sets... are monlogues, and that's what many people today are used to. Listening to "other people" talking and acting and doing things.

Passive consumption of constructed human interaction (corporate-created mass media)... is not direct participation in anything except sitting still and absorbing images and texts.

Sites like this are a window into direct culture production - as opposed to the representative culture-production that we are so used to here... The Karaoke trend is another recent example of direct culture.
#15216203
QatzelOk wrote: Passive consumption....

Sites like this are a window into direct culture production - as opposed to the representative culture-production that we are so used to here... The Karaoke trend is another recent example of direct culture.


People need to be genuine to produce culture. That is what is non-passive consumption.

Subjects can be finalized based on reason & wisdom, not drawn out into memetic wars. That is passive consumption of images.
#15216229
noemon wrote:People need to be genuine to produce culture. That is what is non-passive consumption.

Yes, they need to be genuine to produce culture. Meanwhile, Western consumers have been mostly passively consuming culture for three generations. At what cost to their genuine ability to produce culture anymore?

Losing one's ability to personally "produce culture" might mean that one has entered slavery (pet-hood, domestication, etc.)

Subjects can be finalized based on reason & wisdom, not drawn out into memetic wars. That is passive consumption of images.

But by exposing a population to colors on screens as entertainment, and then by moving them into situations that force them to passively consume images (suburbia, lockdowns, alienation, etc)... the governing bodies of these humans seem to be domesticating cattle, rather than policing Hobbesian miscreants - as they might claim to be doing.

The loss of the ability to produce culture... to sing a song, tell a story, share an idea .... is a major loss of intellectual and human capacity.
#15216241
Rancid wrote:@QatzelOk do you feel you are dumber or smarter than 10 years ago?

A lot smarter in many ways.

For example, I now feel like a mature adult. Finally.

This has taken two decades longer than it should have, if I had NOT spent the first twenty years of my life in a sensory-deprivation tank called "suburbia."

I hated my parents for "ruining me" and raising me and my siblings in a vacuum of TV and lawn mowing. But as I finally matured, realized that my own ant-man existence is just a sign of much bigger phenomena.

And now that I am a mature adult, the well-being of my community, and humanity in general, is of concern to me. As it should be to any suburbanite who has somehow managed to grow up.
#15216326
Here is a snippet from a comment on the Internet that I copy-pasted:

Jeff wrote:... it shows exactly why most people have no business making decisions about how society is run. Most people are easily brainwashed, because they have neither the time, the desire, nor the ability to ferret out the truth considering all the lies and propaganda with which they’re constantly bombarded.


Like many people, the author has reasoned that people shouldn't be trusted to speak out about what direction society or their community should be going.

Why should democratic participation be curtailed, according to the author? Because we are so bombarded by lies (propaganda).

The question I would shoot back would be "Is it really okay and normal to be bombarded with lies all day?"

And also, is making people stupid with lies A STRATEGY that oligarches use to justify their rule over their "dumbed down lie-consumers?"

I ask this because the oligarchs produce most of those lies.
#15228496
Potemkin wrote:In other words, we're doing more with less. Just as hyenas regurgitate their partially digested food and eat it again, and can thereby be said to have a single collective 'stomach', so humans regurgitate their partially digested thoughts and ideas and knowledge, and can thereby be said to have a single collective 'brain'. No other animal can share its thoughts and experiences and feelings with each other like this. It's extraordinary.


What is then PoFo and other forums? Digestion of knowledge and share of ideas just on a bigger level and for free?


Just the conservation of this data is a big problem.
#15228505
Sandzak wrote:What is then PoFo and other forums? Digestion of knowledge and share of ideas just on a bigger level and for free?

Yes.

Just the conservation of this data is a big problem.

Fertiliser is also useful. Nothing is ever really wasted in nature.... ;)
#15228508
QatzelOk wrote:Here is a snippet from a comment on the Internet that I copy-pasted:



Like many people, the author has reasoned that people shouldn't be trusted to speak out about what direction society or their community should be going.

Why should democratic participation be curtailed, according to the author? Because we are so bombarded by lies (propaganda).

The question I would shoot back would be "Is it really okay and normal to be bombarded with lies all day?"

And also, is making people stupid with lies A STRATEGY that oligarches use to justify their rule over their "dumbed down lie-consumers?"

I ask this because the oligarchs produce most of those lies.


People don't like to think they have been bamboozled most of their life. But many people are. What I trust greatly are the real experiences with the current system people actually experience in their lifetimes. It sort of cuts into the lies and the propaganda. At least in Mexico. You talk to ordinary voting Mexicans here and most are not true believers in shit that the government comes up with in the past at least. Many don't know what socialism is or capitalism really either....they live the reality of fraud, being lied to, money disappearing and prices shooting up and corruption, violence, etc. They are an issue-based society. And they respond to the realities they live. In THAT I confide in.

You can talk propaganda all damn day....but reality seeps in whether you like it or not. You don't have to tell Yucatecans their salaries are super low twice. They know it. But how do you change that? That is what they want to know. The lies about how well they are living they are not bamboozled about. The USA is another can of worms Q. Over there the brainwashing is so so bad? That to undo that damage? Is going to take some heavy-duty conversations for decades and restructuring of public and private education kindergarten through university studies. The USA has some serious manipulation of the worst sort. Only by leaving do, you get a decent perspective. Really.

Things people notice when they leave the USA for years:



#15228863
Tainari88 wrote:People don't like to think they have been bamboozled most of their life. But many people are.

This is correct, and propagandists know this. Rather than admit that they have been duped, the consumer is fed a new lie that distracts him from the one that he is starting to notice.

And masses of people are often fed a scapegoat that they can hate, and this scapegoat means that no other cause of the problem is sought.


What I trust greatly are the real experiences with the current system people actually experience in their lifetimes.

Suburbia, car-enclosure, and mass media obsessions, all kill the sharing of actual experiences between people (a.k.a. "community")

Image

Many don't know what socialism is or capitalism really either....they live the reality of fraud, being lied to, money disappearing and prices shooting up and corruption, violence, etc. They are an issue-based society. And they respond to the realities they live. In THAT I confide in.

Scapegoats are important for the oligarchs in this case. Christianity and other religions provide "demon" texts that can be easily used to scapegoat other cultures.

The USA is another can of worms Q. Over there the brainwashing is so so bad? That to undo that damage? Is going to take some heavy-duty conversations for decades and restructuring of public and private education kindergarten through university studies. The USA has some serious manipulation of the worst sort. Only by leaving do, you get a decent perspective. Really.

It's not just the USA. It's most of the wealthy all around the world who gladly "believe" the lies they are fed. Because they feel more successful than the average, many hyper-consumers feel that they have a duty to believe and promote the oligarch's lies.

Things people notice when they leave the USA for years:

I think this is what happened to me. When I was a teen, I spent three summers with a French family in France, and came back with a diminished opinion of the "rich suburb" I lived in.

When I tried to share the "improvements" I had noticed there (kids can walk to all activities, people talk to people while walking, there were few cars and no traffic, family traditions like long-dinners, education and social sophistication were valued, etc.), my family looked away from the TV for a minute just to role their eyes. :lol:

And this suburban-TV-isolated-consumerist-materialist-dumb... has been promoted as "the way to live" for decades all over the world.

REASONS AMERICA IS DUMB
#15249087
@BlutoSays The last thing you need is to get hospitalized during an emergency. Being vaccinated can prevent that. I know critical thinking isn't your forte, but you could stop and TRY to think of an actual reason instead of reacting without thought and only with feelings.
#15249251
Sandzak wrote:The illeterates have up to 8 children (in averrage) whereas the educated do not even give birth to 2 children on this planet.

:lol:
#15249275
Sandzak wrote:The illeterates have up to 8 children (in averrage) whereas the educated do not even give birth to 2 children on this planet.


Correct, this is called the dysgenic effect and according to science already posted in this thread, it is the primary cause for the reduction of IQ in western countries.
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