Is it me or is the general public becoming dumber and more divided?

This is more of a rant that I have been thinking about in light of recent events and things I've noticed.

First of all, I hope that the families and friends of those that were killed in Orlando this past weekend are doing okay, and I know the thoughts and wishes of me and the rest of this entire board are with them. However, it is actually astonishing to me how differently I have noticed people reacting to these types of events compared to the past. It seems as though while there is a large part of those who are grieving and wishing the best for the people involved, there is much more finger-pointing than ever before. Even when a tragedy like this happens, people are still finding a way to argue with each other.

Instead of coming together, I keep hearing about immigration control, gun control, and everything else that can be talked about that points out the problems but never offers any type of solution. Moreover, it seems like people are adamant to stick to their beliefs and will not budge or even compromise despite the fact that other people are suffering from it. They take their respective sides and that's that. It's either my way or the highway.

My biochemistry professor said something about today's society that I still remember. He talks about "his days" and how people were more likely to work together to get things done because they realized that they needed to put aside some of their differences in order to make the world a better place. However, now it seems like the newer generations are less likely to work with each other or even listen to each other, and the country is becoming more and more divided and conflicted on issues that could have been solved in the past. People are becoming more segregated in a different way, and as a pretty much a kid (compared to most of the others on this board), I'm pretty damn afraid of what this country and this world is going to turn into.

My second part of my rant comes from my perspective as a person who was a science major and wants to make a career out of it. Why the hell are people discrediting science like it's some kind of belief? Seriously, some parents are against vaccinations? Really??? Do you want your kid to be more likely to die at a young age? Then, if something wrong does happen, they blame the doctor for not doing better. Vaccinations are the reason why we don't have polio and smallpox anymore. This extends to not only science but obviously many, many other things, too. I just decided to mention the vaccination thing because I plan on becoming a doctor and even hearing that crap pisses me off because it is not detrimental for parents but for the kid him/herself that has no say in it.

For people who say that "they are not a scientist" and have no real prior education in the sciences and then try to have some say and opinion on something that is directly related to science and discredit people who actually are educated in the field, that is worse than useless because you are influencing others who may not have formed an opinion yet. That is like me trying to go straight to Wall Street and become a broker right now and talk about economics and finance when I don't know shit. This is mostly directed to 90% of the politicians nowadays who have a large input into various fields that they have no experience in.

I wish this picture was a reality.




Am I just realizing things that have been happening for decades and is now becoming more apparent due to social media and such? Or is society actually getting worse and going to be literally the Idiocracy movie in the future?



Rant done

 

This is what happens when an entire society lacks context .

 

Time hasnt changed human thinking. It's just that thoughts travel a lot more faster, thanks to abundance of electronic media

 

Haha I just imagine society going apeshit over tube amps.

And nah he wouldn't give a damn. Obviously I didn't describe what he said perfectly and he exaggerated a little bit, but his main point was that we need to continue to learn to work together to get shit done.

He was just trying to teach us some lessons for the rest of our lives since we will be the ones later on who will need to live and learn.

 

I agree it seems people are more polarized than in the past, where a civil discussion and compromise could be attempted. I don't know if it's actually the case, but it really does seem like we have more people identifying themselves with the far right or far left movements. It seems very hard to have civil discussion which could lead to a compromise with this happening.

As an aside, I've stopped discussing politics or even world events at work. I have always believed that a part of being human is a level of humanity and decency towards others, but it seems a lot of people are willing to sacrifice that belief if it benefits themselves. This to me is the most troubling aspect of our society right now.

Also as an aside, this weekend really depressed me. Music is a nice way of feeling connected and dwelling less on the negative, so we at least we have that!

 

These days everyone has an agenda. Nothing is just something anymore, everything has to be something else as well. A crisis isn't just a crisis, it's a chance to further you're own goals and smear the opposition. And it's a chance to gain more youtube clicks while the tears roll down your cheeks.

The thing that gets to me more than anything is how many people have stopped living in the real world, so many people growing up today seem more concerned with their facebook/twitter/snapchat rep than their actual life. Sometimes you just want to grab a handful of them and plant them deep in forrest for two weeks with no cell phone coverage. Wake up and smell the pine trees motherfuckers.

 

At least we have dank memes now. I think we've come a long way





Looks like an improvement to me

 

Whenever I get frustrated by "the times" and "the media" and fear a future with thirst mutilation, I hop on the google and search for "headlines of YYYY" and then punch in whatever date I feel will abate the terror. Recently I have been looking up presidential election years for hopefully obvious reasons. I am almost always drawn to some version of the following conclusions:

1) A lot of shitty things happen almost constantly, all over the world;
2) Almost all of those shitty things make me feel sad;
3) There are truly awful people in the world;
4) We have (nearly) never been able to agree on which things are shitty and which people are awful;
5) There is always a group of loud individuals who are deeply concerned that shit is going inexorably wrong;
6) They almost always have some hidden agenda;
7) There is always a group of loud individuals who think the end is very f'ing nigh;
8) The end has not come and passed;
9) Somehow things are actually better than they were [2016-YYYY] years ago;
10) For all of our stupidity and ugliness, the balance of humanity is actually pretty decent and willing to carry on in the face of all this shit.

 

It's amazing how random people entitle themselves so much of some certain knowledges, expertise, and conspiracy ...

Some recent experiences in the construction/customer service industry:

- Not understanding toilets and bath tubs are plumbing fixtures is a perfect example of show casing good English as a client.
- It is acceptable for a structural engineer to punch the face of a civil engineer over a problem of the architect.
- It is acceptable to use new Chinese immigrants as the explanation to every other daily troubles.
- It is NOT acceptable to warn the client forehead that drawings they made with IKEA webpage planning tools are unacceptable for submission for Building Permit.
- It is completely rational to assume a project in a predominantly white neighbourhood will risk a high chance of getting reported to WorkSafeBC.

 

Let me present my theory as to why both US and EU is divided now more than in a long time. Please respond to this in a civil way even if you disagree, thank you.

The (western) world is getting more politically divided and I think it's coming from Europe. I remember reading a papper years ago (10 maybe, didn't save the source for obvious reasons) where according to a poll, test or something (I can't quite recall) about 95% of Swedes were willing to trust a random stranger on the street about any given subject. Today I don't even think that's 30%, people are more scared than ever and more induvidualized than ever. All kinds of political discussion seems completely taboo even with many close friends. It's fucked up.

The mass imigration really has Sweden mentally. Not only that but anyone pointing it out gets demonized beyond all belief, they lose their job, and often gets doxxed on social media. Nobody I know or has heard of that isn't officially associated with the party has outed themselves as a Sweden Democrat (an anti immigration party) yet a poll from yesterday showed them getting 24,5 percent. It's the largest party in Sweden... Recently you had a similar situation in Germany, however people are more vocal about it over there today.

The entire world (and especially the western) is more globalized than ever, news, emotions and poltical shifts spread quickly and even US that hasn't been involved in the mass immigration from Syria gets divided into two camps. The left who welcomes them with open arms "We are all humans" etc and people who are freaked out by whats happening in Europe. No wonder Trump is as successful as he is.

Take it for what it is, I too wish days like these could just be used for griefing, it's sad beyond all belief. But in the world of social media that's not going to happen sadly.

edit: I would really like someone from US to confirm or come up with a different explanation, I'm genuinely interested. It's just my guess as an outsider.

 

At least in the US the industrial age is _over_. Political "leaders" have done nothing to respond to this and couldn't possibly be expected to. I think much of the mounting frustration and rage you see coming out of the US is a result of this.

 

Thanks for the insight, much appreciated Amazingly enough this is more comprehensive and cohesive than any of the 4 pages + "explanations" from any of our newspapers. Many of your problems we don't have to deal with over here, I guess I'll be glad for that. But out of curiosity, do you feel like a multi party system would help break the ridiculously undemocratic things we've seen in this election? Break lobbying to some degree as well as all those corporations getting into your elections. As a European your party system has always seemed outlandish and weird. It almost pushes for an elite ruling.

 

I think multi party system would be more transparent in terms of what issues are really collecting the most votes. However, I was thinking strongly about this when the republican presidential primaries were a proper mess, and I realized that in the end then number of parties doesn't matter that much (with presidential elections). The other thing is that in most state and local elections, it is not uncommon to see 3d and 4th parties, which then align with one of the big two on the state and national stage.

In most multiparty parliamentary systems, once the dust settles, all the factions get together and figure out a ruling coalition (unless some party gets an outright majority). Everyone not in that coalition is "the opposition", and the minority members of the coalition either get steamrolled by a more powerful majority party, or hijack the ruling coalition and exert influence well beyond their theoretical proportion.

Sound familiar?

I guess the main difference in the US is we figure out our coalitions first. So, the coalitions get sorted through the primary process: which interest groups will back which candidates, which candidates will alienate which voter blocs, etc., and then we hold the elections and hope for the best. Then, the losers spend the next 4 years as (essentially) the opposition, while the winner tries to not anger all of the interests and voting blocs that formed the base for victory.

 

Well, yes it does sound familiar but it would maybe present healthy alternatives to the fairly rotten parties you have now. On the democratic side you have super delegates and the republican side... eh yeah, things were quite messy. We saw the same thing in the UK election. While we have our problems up in Scandinavia, we've never had any problem of this sort and quite frankly (of the top of my memory) I can't recall any multi party system that has problems like this.

I'm sorry but this discussion may have to end (call it a win for the two party system if you will) I gotta sleep. Gotta get up 5 AM tomorrow.
Thanks for all the civil and useful discussion everybody! Best audio forum for sure!