Nah, man. I’m good.
It sounds like you’ve never met an “independent thinker” who decided to “break from the pack” and ended up an antivaxxer with a brain impermeable to logic and facts. That’s surprising, because there are loads of them. Spoiler alert – they are very dim.
Alternatively just read what mosdef wrote, he’s much nicer than I am.
Fuck off with this nonsense.
I’m aware of the Dunning Kruger effect and not buying what you’re saying. People in masses are collectively dumber than the average individual is among the crowd. That’s my opinion. I don’t know of any studies on it. But it’s the best explanation I can think of for how George W and Trump and now even far worse people get elected
For the most part, intelligent people tend to be skeptical. There’s always going to be dumb or malicious purveyors of zany conspiracy theories in dark corners. But the masses on the left that get brainwashed into believing crap like Russia-gate, or that Fauci would never lie, or that covid is 1000x more deadly than it actually is, will continue to be the downfall of not just the Democratic party, but democracy itself. They may not be the ones pulling the strings, but they pave the way for those who do
Intelligent people are capable of being skeptical. Paranoid people are skeptical of everything.
I suggested upthread that the parents should be criminally charged before anyone else did. The focus for real progress on gun control has to be on making gun owners responsible for what happens with their weapons. Crying about guns not only does no good, but it strengthens those who are true gun nuts and allows them to successfully lobby against reform
Right and?..
Really. Care to expain?
Fuck off with pointing out truth things when they conflict with my preferred narrative! 
(Fauci lied. That’s a fact. Sorry you don’t like it)
Edit: Last I’ll post on Fauci or covid ITT. Just pointing out how dumb people get when they can’t hear above the din in their echo chambers
Yes. But this doesn’t imply that skepticism is an indicator of intelligence, as you have hinted at many times. If you observe that A implies B, then you will often be wrong if you assume B implies A. That’s exactly what you’re doing here.
Big difference between being skeptical and knowing when you’re on to something. I think the latter is largely a function of education. Like, I don’t know shit about science and don’t trust anyone but I don’t fall for anti vax bullshit because I was taught how to evaluate evidence pretty well when younger.
Yeah, I mean that’s exactly it. It’s easy to disguise ignorance as skepticism. “I don’t believe in X!” sounds impressive to people that don’t know anything about X and don’t want X to be true. It suggests that X is “just an opinion”. Like we’re sitting here with the planet on fire after 30 years of “skepticism” about climate change. The actual skepticism broke down when confronted by evidence, but the “I don’t want climate change to be real and I want to feel smart by taking an oppositional position” didn’t because it wasn’t actually skepticism, it was just ignorance.
A defining characteristic (one of many) of the modern conservative is how PROUD they are of their ignorance. This whole idea that “skepticism” in indicative of intelligence is just a very of that. It’s a self congratulatory framing of proudful ignorance to make it appear to be a virtue.
I’d like to discuss this in a more relevant thread because I think it’s an interesting topic. Are you all saying that collective intelligence is as keen as individual intelligence?
Maybe I’m misspeaking here. I’m not saying skeptical or independent thinkers are smarter people. I’m suggesting that people entrenched in group think are dumber as a whole. I do not believe so many Americans are dumb enough to think it was a good idea to elect a lying pathological reality TV show clown on their own. Nor would they believe the Republican BS that an entire election was rigged, etc., etc.
Group think is why so many believe in invisible gods, talking snakes, and ancient fairy tales. Have a mod move this to an appropriate thread to discuss further if you’d like. I’m fascinated by how dumb people are when thinking as a collective whole
This is the last time I will respond to one of your posts since it’s obvious now J was spot on about you being a bad faith actor.
Fauci didn’t lie. He made a carefully worded statement that required a level of handling brought about by the ignorant masses that have latched on to cheap gotchas peddled by 2 bit hucksters.
Also, since you drew a line from yourself to me earlier I need to clear another thing up. My support of gun rights stems from my fantasies of protecting others and it’s always a last resort.
I apologize to mosquitoes when I swat them. I loathe ending any life. I believe in physical and pugilistic strength to avoid fights that an insecure ego might be baited into engaging in.
Here are words from William Saroyan’s play “Time of your life” recited by MF Doom (RIP) over music by Andrew Broder that best sum up my attitude towards conflict. Good day sir.
Wish granted.
He said on 60 minutes that masks (even an N95) wouldn’t do any good. Granted, he didn’t know about being asymptomatic for 2 weeks, but if you really believe that a renowned immunologist and director of the NIAID wouldn’t know that wearing a mask is better than not wearing one and would make a person safer from both contracting and spreading covid, then you are the exact type of person I’m talking about when it comes to being collectively gullible and dumb. Any layman could tell you that was bullshit He just said it to prevent a run on N95 masks. That’s just one example and probably not the best, when it comes to Fauci, WHO, and the CDC giving false or misleading information
Does this thread have to have such an abusive title?
Better?
You can reverse this axiom as well. "I believe X sounds impressive to people that don’t know anything about X and want X to be true. It suggests that X is “just an opinion”.
Example: Everyone jumping on the pile and wasting 2 years on Russiagate while actually believing there was collusion between Trump himself and Russia.
Or how many people spent almost year thinking and repeating that Rittenhouse was the one chasing people? I could go on and on about the failure of critical thinking by the masses
Skepticism to me, just means remaining agnostic about something until you have all the facts
Yeah, because juvenile insults has become the trademark of UP
