Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Liberals and cognitive bias

I've recently become aware of the strong liberal backlash to offensive ideas being shared on US campuses. Two of which that annoy me most are the Berkeley University protest and the Yale student mob harassing the professor Nicholas Christakis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELzUfKWTvI0).

It's tough to say when you view these things on YouTube whether these events are an accurate representation of liberal ideas. None the less, I've noticed my own liberal friends become increasingly more staunch about their ideas, so I think this rise in dogmatic and violent liberalism is somewhat accurate. Here's a cartoon mocking what I think is a mainstream liberal and conservative approach to truth.



I suspect the leading cause of this is that most young people trap themselves in virtual echo chambers, which leaves them emotionally hypersensitive to opposing ideas. This makes it harder to view social issues objectively. How can you have a rational conversation about gay rights when the atmosphere is so emotionally unstable? It's just not a good way to pursue truth! 

I fear that the internet has also become the modern day equivalent of gathering your pitch fork and torch. It's easy for a group of people to damage businesses via reviews, and it's even easier to write hate speech anonymously via message boards. Having the power to cause an instantaneous effect due to a spike in emotion is a cause for instability. And das bad.

You're gonna be surprised to hear me say this, but I think the main culprit of these problems is NOT religion, it's the internet. We're biologically predisposed to seek confirmation bias, and to feel anger, and I think these primal parts of ourselves are being facilitated with 21st century technology.




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