this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

It's pretty common to come across someone online claiming they’re just too smart to ever be fooled by conspiracies/cults (religious, political, commercial), but it's actually really important not to assume intelligence is all you need to avoid it. Everyone should be aware of and have a guard up against tactics of undue influence. It might be easier to reach the conspiracy/cult believers if we could say 'look, it's not that you're stupid', but it seems like this article is suggesting the rest of the sentence is 'it's just that you're bad at thinking', which isn't a lot better... ha.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

There's nothing worse than a smart person who gets lead down the wrong path.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

It might be easier to reach the conspiracy/cult believers if we could say 'look, it's not that you're stupid', but it seems like this article is suggesting the rest of the sentence is 'it's just that you're bad at thinking'

This is why I personally don't like all the critical thinking advice online. None of it actually helps a person think better. Being aware of your own biases, for example, doesn't automatically make anyone better at critical reasoning.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Learn to think dialectically

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Im too lazy to find the statistic but im pretty sure the likelihood of joining a cult increases with intelligence. And cultic and conspiratorial thinking ain’t that dissimilar

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

Sounds like a conspiracy

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Eh, 90% of statistics are made up anyway. 🙃

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Actually 89.67.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Higher intelligence increases your ability to rationalize anything to yourself, and I think some people are less aware of the influence of various cognitive biases on their judgement.

Fairly unintuitive rabbit hole.. leading into a network of warrens.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Once you bathe yourself in the warm waters of fellowship and community, belief follows quickly behind, and you're lost

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I mean I know the article isn't actually about that image, but Bill Gates is evil. Not for putting microchips in the vaccine, but for trying to force the patent on the covid vaccines, keeping low income countries from having access to the vaccine.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Also for being a god damn billionaire. It's intrinsic.