• cameron_vale@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    I think it might speak against the idea. Because there is a strong probability that it is chosen, not because evidence/logic/etc leads to it, but because it is popular with one’s friends. Not saying it’s necessarily so, but there’s a strong probability.

    (Which would lead to “truth can only be gotten from antisocial weirdos”. Which is kinda bleak I guess.)

    But yes. I think that the 99% of people get their whole reality from consensus. No actual independent thinking except in the details. And there is also a vast hostility to the strange there. Maybe that’s “tribalism”.

    • tygerprints@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      That’s true where I live in mormon country, USA. People are told what to think by the church, and they also are instructed who to vote for by the church. The Mormons often say, " my church does my thinking for me." I guess it relieves people of the responsibility of having to make choices for themselves. That to me is much bleaker than truth being obtained from weirdos.

      Which I think it correct. It takes a “weirdo” to be either crazy or brave enough to say anything that goes against the popular viewpoint. Most people can handle almost anything better than they can handle being unpopular or called weird.

      • cameron_vale@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        It’s funny. People I know who are religious. They may have a head full of scripture but dogmatism isn’t as ubiquitous as you might think. And often behind that scriptural thinking is a proper humility. An understanding that these eyes and this brain are just a speck. A dot of illumination in a vast night. Fine modern scientific and/or theological theories notwithstanding.

        The popular arrogance, otoh, is childish. Smug certainty that you have truth in hand. I find that hard to swallow.

        Drugs and meditation are the best cure for it as far as I can tell.

        I like meditation a lot.