Comment by neuronic | Hacker News Reader

Comment by neuronic | Hacker News Reader

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You can thank Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and the like. Discussion online used to be more complex and thoughtful until everything became a 140 character newsfeed entry and that is not just romanticism. People always had certain characteristics and tendencies, good or bad, but nowadays we put them on pedestals.

Also, the magnitude of people who are literally too dumb to comprehend even the most basic concepts (e.g. "science is a constant process of knowledge discovery") is far far higher than I would have ever dreamed back before social media gave everyone a platform. I used to think that some people just didn't get the right education or didn't have the same chances but the truth is that a lot of people are just willfully ignorant assholes unwilling to even listen to anyone but their own brain waves.

I am fairly young but feel fairly old when I see complete morons on YT or TikTok feeling the need to chime into societal discussions without any foundation. Case in point, a very smart YouTube named "Rezo" has politically upset Germany by "destroying" a political party (CDU, party of Merkel) with a 54min video containing nothing but RESEARCHED AND CITED (!) facts and videos. Like a scientific paper in video form. [1]

The responses? "But he has blue hair so fuck him!!!11!"

Every shallow Instagram sycophant has an opinion about issues that others studied for decades and got PhDs for it which in itself is fine but becomes absurd when it is expected that their opinion should hold equal weight and value.

The modern Internet is absurd in the way it has transformed discussions. It constantly works to erode Western values by elevating fringe groups that would never even find a way to spout their nonsense on any other platform - at least not with the same reach.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y1lZQsyuSQ

In regards to the black and white thinking that seems common on the internet I think it’s very important to understand and have compassion for the volume of people who have experienced some form of emotional abuse in their life.

How you treat other people is scoped by how you are capable of treating yourself. Developmentally we learn how to treat ourselves from how our parents or caregivers treat us. It’s always useful to remember that people who are judgmental also direct that same lack of acceptance inward in some way.

Abuse and developmental trauma are not only the extreme physical or sexual abuse that people might think of. Neglect, inappropriate boundaries and validation being contingent on meeting arbitrary standards has a strong negative impact as well.

Often it is important for people to create an “other” and tear them down in order to somehow increase their own self worth in the moment. This is not a real solution to self-esteem so people who do so may have to increase the volume of their behavior over time to try and maintain some baseline sense of “being ok.”

People are responsible for their behavior regardless of their life experiences and I’m not saying we should excuse bad behavior.

I think it’s very important to remember that the problem is not “dumb people” attacking things because they are “dumb”. Believing this is extremely disempowering and will generate conflicts and alienation between people over time.

The idea of “dumb people” is the biggest cultural red herring ever and extremely toxic because when someone is labeled dumb: - There is no point talking to them or listening to them - They are never going to change, they are just a “dumb person” - There is no point trying to understand them better - Calling someone dumb and treating them like a “dumb person” is abusive.

That being said people who are stressed out, people who have experienced abuse and are having a flashback (complex ptsd is interesting) have an inhibited pre-frontal cortex. This means reduced “executive function” and basically that it is harder to think. So they might be acting in “dumb” ways. The key is that this inhibition on thinking will go away once their stress levels are better.

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