Education alone won’t solve this crisis, but without it, nothing else will work. This isn’t just about resisting disordered discourse - it’s about building a society where it struggles to take hold in the first place.
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I'm highly ed., workd white-collar, workd FT+PT bc I had med debt in my 30s, cdnt get on housing ladder, then Great Recession torpedoed my profession. Hopelssnss upon hoplssnss--& bitternss that govt didn't protect me AND failed to make bad actors make $ amends.
Important thread, but u're missg smthg crucial: 40+ yrs of economic misery changes ppl--I know this 1st-hand. Constant anxiety (no work, no $, no med. care, will I become homeless) morphs into rage, leaves ppl vulnerable to radicalization. I stayed progrssv, but I understd this as few of u do. +++
I've just come across this two hour long video explaining in great detail why the Moon Landings weren't fake, and I lasted just over half an hour before I gave up wondering why people have apparently expended so much effort in coming up with so many different ways to cast doubt on them ?
people have learnt to 'doubt' everything, without having learnt to apply whatever knowledge they might have to determine what are legitimate doubts and what aren't.
And even if they do have the capacity to discard some of those doubts, then their compulsion to 'doubt' stops them from
We also need to teach empathy. Those billion screens create a billion silos, catering to each person’s prejudices with algorithms. Online, everyone is the main character. Discourse is rife with entitlement and dehumanizing language (NPCs, foids, various slurs).
It’s easy to become blind to others’ struggles if the algorithm keeps them hidden.
We can teach SEL and anti bullying, but without empathy the lessons are gone by middle school. Social media rewards cruelty and is designed to be addictive.
I'd like to propose a tactic to deploy this education:
A coordinated effort by libraries, public access tv and radio to offer locally supported data centers that host a federated social network that is locally regulated and offers rehabilitation to treat media illiteracy and screen addiction.
I oftentimes find myself thinking these days of the man who taught my 10th grade Mass Media class and how well his teachings back in 1976-77 prepared me for the modern world. There wasn't even an internet then. Didn't need to be. The critical thinking skills he taught held up.
i want continuing education for folks who didn’t get this in school or training at work too. (thinkin about older half of genx, boomers & facebook groups that have left me worried)
Frankly, a lot of older millennials could use it too; we graduated high school before anyone even tried teaching it explicitly, especially in the US (like me), and it's not necessarily true people picked it up explicitly.
Small screens, big screens have nothing to do with this: democracy dies when business leaders decide it is no longer aligned with their financial interests (with the support of all kind of conservative people). They called out Mussolini and Hitler in the same way as they do now with Trump ...
I would add that getting uniform application of these ideas will likely be difficult but each teacher, or parent, can make a difference. My ability to analyse the source, bias and validity of a piece of information came from one high school history teacher and it stuck.
Covid isolation did a lot to accelerate this—I won’t try to argue it out here, but to say that losing other human beings, learning to love and appreciate idiosyncrasy, empty-headed time, taking a walk, are also part of getting to a solution. The lack of social facility has done horrendous damage.
Convincing. Maddened by a billion fractured black mirrors. Ppl living is delusion isn't new; automating, targeting and milking them at such scale IS new.
Thx for covering remedies: education, practice, real agency, IIUC.
It's very easy, even as a committed adult with all the skills, to feel like disengaging - this is a huge problem. You can have all the skills in place, but the energy to keep going is harder to sustain. Esp when we have heavy domestic, local, concerns right now too, & an awful mental load.
I remember as a kid when Reagan and the GOP started going after education hard. This is the result nearly three generations later. I was and is their plan.
The challenge is that such a proposal is inherently un-American. I don't mean that as an insult, but who decides what sources are credible in schools? Nowadays, Texas & Cali will have diametrically opposing perspectives on what's credible, and you may end up indoctrinating children as a result.
It's all about the individual ability to gain an informed opinion. That's the fundament for recognizing blunt lies and gaps. Gaps in the line of arguments that build other people's opinions. As this works both ways, we'd be safe if such skill would be common. https://nicht-verhandelbar.de/tweets/articles/text01.html
Yeah but for this to work you have to have institutions-and political parties-that are willing to engage with citizens. The US has huge critical thinking and propagandized media problems but it also has politicians who are incredibly unmotivated to engage with voters.
That's part of why we're here. Repub voters believe whatever rw media tells them and the Dems are uninterested in the things that are important to the actual left. They're content to be GOP lite and totally unwilling to listen to the people they expect to vote for them or adapt their strategies.
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I'm highly ed., workd white-collar, workd FT+PT bc I had med debt in my 30s, cdnt get on housing ladder, then Great Recession torpedoed my profession. Hopelssnss upon hoplssnss--& bitternss that govt didn't protect me AND failed to make bad actors make $ amends.
It's like
And even if they do have the capacity to discard some of those doubts, then their compulsion to 'doubt' stops them from
https://youtu.be/fMHLvoWZfqQ?si=YSVv_VwOjZGMTe-i
We also need to teach empathy. Those billion screens create a billion silos, catering to each person’s prejudices with algorithms. Online, everyone is the main character. Discourse is rife with entitlement and dehumanizing language (NPCs, foids, various slurs).
We can teach SEL and anti bullying, but without empathy the lessons are gone by middle school. Social media rewards cruelty and is designed to be addictive.
A coordinated effort by libraries, public access tv and radio to offer locally supported data centers that host a federated social network that is locally regulated and offers rehabilitation to treat media illiteracy and screen addiction.
I oftentimes find myself thinking these days of the man who taught my 10th grade Mass Media class and how well his teachings back in 1976-77 prepared me for the modern world. There wasn't even an internet then. Didn't need to be. The critical thinking skills he taught held up.
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Thx for covering remedies: education, practice, real agency, IIUC.
We can't rely on any one thing. But we need to educate ourselves, learn to apply critical thinking skills we learn, and make critical thinking count.
https://nicht-verhandelbar.de/tweets/articles/text01.html