Article

2025-11-06 -Short Attention Span Theater-

On Critical Thinking - 'Black, White, and the Comfortable Lie'

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Posted by Besoeker 2025-11-06 00:54|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [1789 views ] Top

1 The Tribal Pull:

Then there’s the tribal pull. Humans are pack animals, and nothing bonds a group faster than a common enemy. “Us vs. Them” isn’t just a narrative trick—it’s evolutionary. Back in the savanna days, you didn’t survive by pondering the moral ambiguity of the rival tribe; you picked your side and swung the club. Today, that instinct gets hijacked by algorithms and talking heads, but the wiring’s the same. Admitting your team might be wrong feels like betrayal, so people double down, even when the facts are screaming otherwise.

Posted by Besoeker 2025-11-06 01:22|| 2025-11-06 01:22|| Front Page Top

2 Good article.

Thanks, Besoeker.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2025-11-06 08:07|| 2025-11-06 08:07|| Front Page Top

3 good points Besoeker

The quantitative aspect of truth was long undervalued, as was the dynamic nature of truth (e.g., now it is day but in a few hours we say 'now it is night')

but I think Aristotle's major contribution was in establishing the usefulness of typologies. As in 'traffic law penalties' are one thing with it's own set of assumptions, practice and procedures; 'illegal business practices' are another, etc.

Sometimes when I'm speaking with leftists I ask their opinion of why certain things happened, e.g., why did the Soviet Union fail to produce good consumer goods, why did Islamic Socialism in Pakistan result in egregious corruption. Or else I engage them in a discussion of why Hegal had such a crazy theory of history.

All to avoid their blah blah blah about Trump.

Posted by Lord Garth 2025-11-06 09:13|| 2025-11-06 09:13|| Front Page Top

4 Critical thinking is very difficult these days. people derive "facts" from a source. these "facts" are then shared within a mostly sympathetic pier group, or echo chamber ie education. the problem is pick your source, which you can now, to reinforce "truth". then it gets weaponized, we dont even know who weaponizes it. My favorite analogy, when i grew up there were 3 tv channels +PBS and they all said the same the same thing, the whole country watched the same cartoons, adults all watched the same news and favorite sitcoms. there was cohesion, regardless of the message. all had the same source. this allowed for overall non-divisive debate for a "common good". good luck with that today

Posted by jefe101 2025-11-06 11:17|| 2025-11-06 11:17|| Front Page Top

5 Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind

A unique trait of the human species is that our personalities, lifestyles, and worldviews are shaped by an accident of birth―namely, the culture into which we are born. It is our cultures and not our genes that determine which foods we eat, which languages we speak, which people we love and marry, and which people we kill in war.

Posted by Skidmark 2025-11-06 11:50|| 2025-11-06 11:50|| Front Page Top

6 nice add Skid, our culture is young and week, inherited from Christian Europe and passed down fairly well until recently. our culture is based on our foundational ideas and the belief that all people want them, sans 2000 year old monuments or the history that goes with them, our own people, religion or language. without the bedrock principles, ideas are maleable. America never said give up your own traditions, it said to be American you must shed the bad traditions and ideas, embrace the good and work to reinforce and protect them. That is why immigrations was historically "regulated" through moratoriums.

Posted by jefe101 2025-11-06 12:09|| 2025-11-06 12:09|| Front Page Top

7 It's interesting how fast the everything's relative crowd turn into the nothing's relative, my way or the highway posse.

Posted by ed in texas 2025-11-06 12:54|| 2025-11-06 12:54|| Front Page Top

8 #5 Nonsense. Culture is downstream from genetics - that's why liberals hate evolutionary biology so much.

Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-11-06 13:04|| 2025-11-06 13:04|| Front Page Top

9 Hard rule. Never respect a people, culture, nation that never figured out how to use the fricking "wheel".

Posted by Woodrow 2025-11-06 20:07|| 2025-11-06 20:07|| Front Page Top

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