I cannot fucking stand the fact that we live in the year 2024 and we’re having raging debates about if science has value… ON THE FUCKING GODDAMN INTERNET.
This population deserves the hardships coming, and that’s a really, really terrible thing to say, because the coming hardships are going to be bad.
Do you think people become more conservative with age or is it society becoming more progressive and leaving them behind?
I am getting up there in years and seeing this play out over and over.
I think every generation wants to be more progressive than the last, but we tend to carry baggage of fear and insecurity through the generations. Or more specifically, older people tend to gain the political and monetary capital needed to affect policy and shape our societal outlook and attitude. They will always be more conservative than the younger generation who will want more freedoms and personal rights, inherently, and as the ruling class will clash with newer sensibilities, over and over.
What we’re asking here, is the conservatism reflected in our elders and leadership now broadly more harmful or helpful? Are we out of the touch or is it the kids who are wrong?
I think it’s a mix but mostly it’s not our real problem. Our real problem is that no matter what our age, we have greatly misunderstood how our own existence works. Most people have been taught that they have brains designed to exercise logic and reason and that brains are the best thing ever if you use them and make them smart.
No, our brains are not logical tools. We are not a rational species. There was no “age of enlightenment.” It’s all a hoax. Our brains are tools designed to write a story to explain how you feel. And that’s it. It doesn’t even have to make sense. When we all learn how our brains actually work we will collectively make better decisions, have more compassion for each other, and likely sink into even deeper despair as we all start to realize we have no free will.
Almost anyone with an irrational political stance betrays their youth.
Political ideology has always captivated the passions of youth, but isn’t successfully implemented or even internalized except by people with age and experience and emotional regulation.
Should have took a lot more.
You are so cool for being able to point out political ideology you don’t like, you’re cool.
edit: I also love how I just said “nazis and sexists” and this clown goes “Oh yeah, the left is bad too!” Bruh, doesn’t that say something right there that you assumed it was a political attack?
The public voting system is massively flawed when it comes to websites and sharing content. Since anyone who really wants visibility can just pay any number of services to boost their posts and comments, you have no idea what’s real and you have no idea what the general public actually supports.
For the average person who doesn’t think about what’s going on behind the scenes, it looks like an accurate representation of society’s interests and leanings. This is probably why we have a sharp uptick of far-right assholes and why so many young guys are turning towards sexist, racist figures online. The very same people who also proudly talk about how good they are at manipulating people. Hmmn.
So far a lot of the people I’ve interacted here have been more dense than reddit, I mean, a lot of the people here have been banned from reddit after all.
I mean, so was I. But it was for quoting someone’s use of a slur so they couldn’t edit it, then evading that bullshit ban. Apparently when you actively call out nazis and sexist assholes the powers that be will find a way to make you regret it.
I’ve had a lot of reptiles and as a result, a lot of reptile bites.
Almost every time I’ve been bit it was an accident or a response, and as soon as the reptile realized it had human skin in it’s mouth it would release. Even herbivore iguanas have a lot of pretty sharp teeth and I’ve had some unique looking bite marks, but they almost never bite intentionally.
Parrots meanwhile… they are evil incarnate, at least to me. I’ve never met a parrot that didn’t bite me hard enough to let me know it could easily amputate parts of my body if it so chose. Meanwhile I see them loving and cuddling other people, people who say things like “He’s really very loving, he never bites anyone, he’s perfectly safe to pet!”
There are a lot of creatures that have very distinct smells but you never get close enough to them to notice. Reptiles make for some stanky pets even though I doubt many of you could identify a lizard terrarium smell. Many insects produce smells as defense mechanisms but you can barely smell it as a human. Grasshoppers and many beatles in particular tend to secrete nasty smelling slime when handled, a smell that follows them around, and that’s a smell I can recall clearly and sharply.
I have a theory though that human smell has lost sensitivity because of social reasons. We used to be fantastic at chemical analysis until civilization happened and we all started using soap and telling each other that normal, every day smells are now “bad” and we need to mask them with perfumes and soaps. This made us afraid to smell things for fear that we were taking something “bad” inside us, the idea of evil or bad air goes back very, very far.
The problem with this argument from the fundamental level is that 99% of religious zealots don’t give two shits about your science or facts. There is a whole segment of the human population that has no mind for factual information and just decides to believe whatever they feel.
There is no real arguing with these people, they don’t care about evidence or science, I am quite convinced they don’t even understand things the same way as other people and don’t have an internal mind-voice that works the same way as other people. It’s just a totally different conscious experience, and despite making full use of our science and technology, they don’t exist in a world where that matters.
The hard part about this understanding is you realize there’s no resolution. They can’t be changed because they’re not unsatisfied with their world. A smart person is never satisfied and will always ask questions and even ask questions about the questions. Not these people. They actively are annoyed by questions and even see learning things as a kind of sin or spiritual crime.
So lets save our collective energy and instead focus on making classrooms better funded and knowledge available and unavoidable for the younger children growing up in this world and still developing their minds. I was pulled out at an early age simply by finding a few science books, others can be too.