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Comment by gonehome | Hacker News Reader

It’s scary how vulnerable everyone is to this kind of thing.

It makes me wonder what would happen if I watched YouTube videos every day that were misleading but well produced.

Would I eventually end up the same way?

How damaging is just repeated exposure and reinforcement to this kind of stuff? Is everyone vulnerable?

Even being scientifically minded and trying to be a good rational thinker, the way otherwise intelligent people are corrupted scares me.

It makes me extra cautious with what information I choose to expose myself to.

I do take some comfort that I was able to throw religion away even while growing up surrounded by it as a child.

I hope that means there’s a way to be more resilient to misinformation.

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> Would I eventually end up the same way?

In theory no, if you have developed critical thinking.

I wonder if critical thinking works like a muscle that we have to train. I personally check opposite opinions on youtube, but it's scary how youtube algorithm wants to brainwash me with recommendations on any direction I take, I use the option of "not interested" a lot, to clean up recommendations.

That and the evident radical polarization, scares me.

Theory and practice are often very different things. It's not hard at all to find intelligent, educated people, skilled in critical thinking, who believe very wacky ideas, because those ideas strike some emotional chord with them, which leads them to simply not see contradictory evidence.

The weakness with critical thinking is the old adage- the effort required to refute (or in this case question) bullshit is an order of magnitude greater than the effort required to create it.

Basically, a tidal wave of bullshit overwhelms your ability to think critically about what you are hearing.

> the way otherwise intelligent people are corrupted scares me.

This is because of appeals to emotions. Our intelligence emerged from the animal - which we still are.

It isn't a question of intelligence. Intelligence can be easily manipulated if you manipulate emotions, which is what most content does. Look at how easily marketing works - these things work on intelligent and unintelligent people.

The problem isn't critical thinking - that is why intelligent people argue without any progress against these people. It isn't about intelligence. It's about emotion, animal desire, and manipulation. The way to not fall into the trap is to be aware.

Take a look into Chinese and Uighurs and Tabetains. Look into Scientology and other cults. Look into ISIS and radicalisation. Brainwashing is definitely a thing that works and a lot of energy is put into making it happen. It is indeed scary.

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