[quote=“Hokwongwei”]
Don’t underestimate the power of an echo chamber. [/quote]
I think this is part of my mom’s problem. She grew up with just a few TV channels and probably access to as many newspapers + a highly homogenous religion. The party line was the party line and most people seemed, more or less, to agree with it.
Now I know she spends hours every night either watching fox news or clicking around on websites with similar views. Because she’s exposing herself to hours of this stuff every day, and most of the people she’s in contact with are religious and of similar political views, to her it’s just obvious that the stuff is true. When her daughter comes around with a different viewpoint she doesn’t see how I could disagree with her, when so many “facts” are circulating to support her arguments. There’s just so much “evidence” that she’s right! Especially when all of the “smart” “authoritative” people agree with her.
It’s something that freaks me out about the internet/google- their algorithms make sure that a person will continue to see things that are similar to what they’ve already searched/seen/appeared to like. ALL of us build our version of reality based on what we’re exposed to. IF the internet is our main source of info, and algorithms give us more of the same, we’re kind of fucked when it comes to balanced views.
I have a really interesting mix of my extremely right wing family/people I knew from the religion I was raised in and my more liberal “chosen” family. It’s fun to watch their completely opposing views pop up right next to each other. They’re for the most part lovely people who would get along well in person. Sometimes I’m really glad they can’t see each other’s posts!
[quote=“finley”]
Do you think it’s possible the producers don’t actually believe half of the crap they put out there? Maybe the reason you get such outrageously retarded nonsense on Fox is that it’s like an all-year-long April Fool’s joke. They’re probably running some sort of competition among themselves to see how totally random they can get before the punters wrinkle their little sloping brows and think: hang on, that can’t be right, can it?[/quote]
Beliefs are so interesting. I’d like to think that I believe things based on an even-handed assessment of the information available to me, but alas it’s not the case. I think most people’s “beliefs” are based on what they are rewarded for saying they believe. Once I was at a Clinique counter trying to figure out the cheapest thing I could buy to get their “free gift.” The Clinique lady was blathering on and on about the “true science” behind their anti-aging shtuff and said some assinine statement about how this or that cream can reverse the signs of aging. I repeated the exact sentence she said and then said, “Do you really believe that?”
Her eyes darted around to see who was listening before she answered. Funny, I can’t remember how she responded now, but I remember thinking at the time that it was clear she hadn’t thought about it much. Gotta make the sale.
I think that behind the most violent, passionate exclamations of belief there’s often a nebulous muddle of emotion and nothing more. Thus beliefs are based lower on Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs, not so much at the self-actualization level, but down with esteem, love and belonging, and even safety (depending on where and when one is living).
I think Vonnegut did a great job of exploring this issue in Mother Night. Great book.
