• Blindsite@lemmy.today
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    4 hours ago

    Your garden and kitchen = biochemistry and biology. Home improvement, crafting and anything to do with the trades = physics. Household cleaners, gas, automotive chemicals and plastics = chemistry + healthcare = more organic chemistry and biology. Just dealing with everyday life is science.

    Look I think one of the fundamental problems here is we have a cultural divide between people with thousand dollar degrees and everyday people. When someone says “I’m not going to be a scientist” they’re probably thinking “I can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars to pay for a degree” whilst actual scientists are wondering “why don’t people pursue this subject more?” Money. Pure and simple. Real science = cooking, building something, worrying about that scum in your sink, trying to figure out the best cleaner that won’t set off an allergic reaction, and yes looking into the side effects of vaccines and assorted drugs. You want people to think scientifically then call them scientists. Don’t create an economic barrier for those who want to pursue knowledge. And don’t treat science like it only happens in labs. It’s an every day process. Science = the study of nature and everybody can do that every day. You don’t need an expensive degree to do that. So being a “scientist” shouldn’t be limited to those in white coats, getting grants and have a dozen plaques on their wall that cost a couple thousand dollars to buy.

    • F_State@midwest.social
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      52 minutes ago

      I never had money or a science degree. I just watched Cosmos as a kid, devoured documentaries, and read articles on wikipedia all day.

    • PeacefulForest@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      My homeschooling, flat earth believing, anti vax mother never taught me science. She said I would never be a scientist so that was enough reason for her.

    • smeenz@lemmy.nz
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      Yeah, we’re not talking about people with expensive degrees. The earth is not flat, and mcgyver is not an elitist. These things should be obvious with a high school level of education.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    6 hours ago

    When I was a senior in high school, I needed one more science credit for graduation, so I took Human Anatomy. It was taught by a young hippie (it was the 70s), who also taught the exact same course at the local community college.

    It was a great class, with lots of cool labs, experiments, and dissections. We had to memorize every bone, and every muscle. It was one of the hardest classes I’ve ever taken, but also the most fun.

    That class was filled with future doctors and nurses, so none of them were whining about how they’d never use this stuff. But I wasn’t on a medical track (I was a music history major), and I could have probably said that (I didn’t), but I have used the knowledge I gained in that class literally every single day of my life, decades later. Easily one of the best classes I took in my entire life.

  • CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 hours ago

    I’m so glad that people finally start to grasp, how bad excessive specialisation really is.

    society is healing

    • sleen@lemmy.zip
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      3 hours ago

      Once I was doubting the need for higher levels of mathematics. Now as an engineer I realize the utility of this knowledge.

      What made my change my mind? Well it’s definitely not my intelligence nor my age, it’s the practical application of that theory which got me here. Reading in between the lines can only happen if you like what you’re doing.

      • CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 hours ago

        I have a similar relationship with math. Only that I learnt to admire it through 3D and shaders.

        Check out Shadertoy.com

        People there create works of art from something, that’s usually perceived as “cold”. I’m still in awe of how people, using “cold” analythical methods achieve something so full of soul. I think it deserves to be appreciated far more than it is now. This is literal magic.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 hours ago

    We need to split the US up into two parts so we can do A/B testing.

    As others have said, the problem of vaccines isn’t that they don’t work. The problem of vaccines is that they work too well. They have completely eliminated the diseases that motivated their development, so people can’t imagine a world where these vaccines don’t exist anymore.

    We need to split the US up into two parts. One gets vaccines, the other one does not. Wait 30 years. Then the people will see the effects and then the people will understand why we should have vaccines. If the people don’t see the alternative scenario, they can’t see the difference that vaccines make. We need to make these differences more visual.

    • Blindsite@lemmy.today
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      4 hours ago

      I mean your premise seems to be that various diseases will reemerge and that will scare people into getting vaccines. But what if they end up healthier and so adapt in different ways? Better sanitation, immune boosters, improved forms of treatment, etc. What if the medical culture takes a totally different route because you allowed people not to get vaccinated?

    • Blindsite@lemmy.today
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      4 hours ago

      And if you’re wrong? What if those who are vaccine free do better? I mean you’ve got a good idea there with the A/B testing but what if your premise is wrong or the anti-vaccine crowd is right and they do end up healthier despite the presence of diseases?

    • III@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Sadly, there is no amount of in-their-face proof to overcome the “I do my own research” mentality.

      And the original meme here misses the most important piece - they lack the basic concept of logic to understand how cause and effect relate to each other. So showing them A vs B won’t get them to the results you expect - even though it should.

  • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    I will argue this is not the problem. It’s that vaccines were too good in their effectiveness. A victim of their own success.

    The problem is not and has not been science. The problem is messaging.

    This is the same reason why anti-vax is so popular, you think that’s about science? It’s idiots like RFK Jr and Trump have the ear of people. It’s all messaging folks.

    A person is smart. People are dumb.

    • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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      The problem is not and has not been science. The problem is messaging.

      Yes, but the actual factor driving this is the meteoric rise of the top 1% richest, it is wealth inequality that creates a coherence to misinformation by establishing systematic incentives. There have always been nebulous, destructive, cancer like forces of misinformation, it is as human as human can be but we aren’t really fighting to transcend the pitfalls our own nature, we are fighting to get on the same page about the rich fucking us all over by artificially supercharging these tendencies within us for their own gain.

      It is irrational to just see this as an abstract conversation about the human brain’s susceptibility to misinformation as it ignores the costly material operation being undertaken to manipulate us with said misinformation.

    • buttnugget@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      I have to agree about the too good in their effectiveness. To get to a point where people are just like, “Nah, it ain’t a big deal” is built atop the millions of dead.

    • Digit@lemmy.wtf
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      8 hours ago

      A person is smart. People are dumb.

      Well between the anti-vaxxers and any-vaxxers, the any-vaxxers won, by measure of how many took the jabs, believing “follow the science” without detecting an oxymoron.

      Beware the power of advertising and ignorance of epistemology.

  • BilSabab@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    the bigger problem is that some teachers are so mentally checked out that they make those subjects actively unappealing. I wonder what makes them that way…

    • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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      6 minutes ago

      Students. Students make them that way. It’s no coincidence that most older teachers feel like they’ve checked out.

      I did substitute teaching for about two years. I got to see a lot of my old teachers, Some classes were wonderful, a true joy to teach. Others, not so much. I can understand why some people, as you say, mentally check out. It’s a coping mechanism. They were not all the same people I remember. Maybe part of growing older. Maybe part of years of difficult students sucking out all the joy of teaching they had in them

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      This is an important comment. We do not teach science on high schools , we stream students to science if they are self directed, then everyone else takes bullshit courses for an easy grade, these days acheived with LLMs.

      • BilSabab@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        yeah, and this approach is so bullshit it is ridiculous - it depends on a child being self-conscious and motivated enough to get into stuff that A LOT of time and effort to understand even with significant adult assistance and proper focus. Of course there will be a significant segment that won’t handle it well

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 hours ago

      “Smart people” are generally not rich people. They are coerced into labor like anyone else. Sometimes their labor is even useful.

      They generally don’t have the time or reason to participate in a counter-productive popularity contest.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      Because with educatio comes a sense of ethics and responsibility. Anyone with ethics will never get accepted into any political party.

    • Digit@lemmy.wtf
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      8 hours ago

      Because there’s no valid nor sound singular-pecking-order, and typically those “smart people” respected as “so smart” are “smart” in other aptitudes than the social aptitude and ruthlessness to so social climb and manipulate to be “in charge”.

      I very often say: we can all be polymaths in the making, not slaves in training. If/when we do so proceed that way, we’d catch more of these follies, and seek better protections and implementations and systems, than just leaving it to the most ruthless social climber, the most effective liar, getting in charge.

    • trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Because to be successful in politics it’s much more important to be charismatic and well spoken than to be actually smart. It’s a dad state of affairs.

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    Academia is completely captured by capitalism. That’s why “scientists” can’t/won’t/don’t go after their masters. How can people oppose genocide when they’re working to build the weapons of genocide? And a society that accepts genocide will accept anything.

    • tempest@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      I mean most don’t go to their PhDs because it is effectively training for being an academic. Except there are very few jobs for academics so you’ll be an adjunct professor getting paid poverty wages.

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      It doesn’t help that there is way too much shitty, agenda-funded science today. And science we aren’t supposed to question. And science driven entirely by profit. Like, isn’t questioning science part of science? Of course the response is completely unreasonable too. All of my family are research scientists, and if a discovery doesn’t meet capitalistic goals, is it even a discovery at this point?

      • Soleos@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        That’s why you teach philosophy and critical thinking. Science will follow if that’s the kid’s interest. But learning to be being self-aware of your own position amongst others, including the position of Science, is key.

        • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          That is why I am appalled at Neil deGrasse Tyson’s belief that philosophy is obsolete and exalt science as the ultimate foundation of truth and society. Where and how does he think science first came about? It was called natural philosophy before. And the scientific method has its roots from Socratic questioning. But I know that NDT is too egocentric to change his mind if called out on it.

          • Soleos@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            Oof don’t get me started. He read that line from Hawking and stuck to it. I had a blast watching nuCosmos when it came out and he’s done plenty good science communication, but Carl Sagan he is not.

      • Avicenna@lemmy.world
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        Yea agreed. When shitty science is given as a reference then it becomes much harder to critically judge something but at least it is not a huge amount of work to see that there is conflicting scientific data on a topic. It is a huge effort to try to gauge which one is more credible. And it does not even have to be agenda driven. It can just be bad science, science driven by strong priors. Then you really have to be an expert on the topic to be able to spot the weaknesses in that study. Luckily however most outrageously stupid statements made by politicians/billionaires and a huge body of online disinformation content don’t even refer to existing science (if it doesn’t give any references to scientific statements, assume it does not exist or ask for links) and are easy to pick apart by realizing the blatant contradictions in their statements.

      • Avicenna@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I think we are strongly geared towards survival with lots of cost cutting measures. Going with the option that best suits our mental state is probably a side effect of that.

  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    the problem is most emphatically not people skipping stuff in school, the problem is that the world is filled with people who have literally researched how to mislead and manipulate people. The only classes i think would actively help protect you against this is history and political science.

    We can’t expect everyone to be educated in every field so they can recognize misinformation, what we need is for everyone to recognize fascism and general authoritarian methods.

    • Zombie-Mantis@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      A bit of philosophy/media would help as well, it doesn’t help to teach someone science, if they don’t understand what science is.

    • shawn1122@sh.itjust.works
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      To your point, I’ve met quite a few STEM educated people who fall for this type of misinformation due to lack of historical and political literacy.

      Quite a few are also quite disrespectful to the humanities so they tend to be empathetically underdeveloped since they feel their whole life is about producing results and making progress at any cost necessary.

      • buttnugget@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        I’m really happy to see this discussion here. Intellectual self defense comes from a well rounded liberal arts education. The type of people who whine about having to take general education and non science courses are already displaying an alarming lack of critical thinking skills; they are exactly the ones who need it most.

    • massive_bereavement@fedia.io
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      Appeal to emotions, rather than logic, and if you pull the right lever, that person will get a bias confirmation, feel smarter for knowing something everyone else doesn’t and in some cases, feel less insecure for not knowing enough.

      I’ve met people that have a degree or that are even teaching and have the worst baseless believes. It’s only a matter of getting to your levers.

    • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      Media literacy and how to validate sources. Unfortunately, the second part was primarily taught in college when I was still in school.

      Critical thinking is very difficult to teach. Its so much easier for people to just accept whatever confirms their current preconceived notion. It also requires that the person is both open to learning new things and that they are open to the idea that they may be wrong, misinformed, or not know everything.

      So many people are simply over confident about their own knowledge.

  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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    I feel like media literacy is more useful for preventing this crap than a scientific education would be, though both help to some degree.

    • bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip
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      Sure, but a fundamental understanding of the basics, across all disciplines (science , history, literature, and math) helps one spot bullshit from a mile away. Science especially helps apply math and critical thinking.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        IMHO, understanding the Scientific Method and, maybe more importantly, why it is as it is (so, understanding things like Confirmation Bias - including that we ourselves have it without noticing it, which skews our perception, recollection and conclusions - as well as Logical Falacies) is what makes the most difference in how we mentally handle data, information and even offered knowledge from the outside.

        PS: Also more broadly in STEM, the structured and analytical way of thinking in those areas also helps in things like spotting logical inconsistencies, circular logic and other such tricks to make the illogical superficially seem logical.

        Even subtle but common Propaganda techniques used in the modern age are a lot more obvious once one is aware of one’s one natural biases and how these techniques act on and via those biases, purposefully avoiding logic.

        Personally I feel that that’s the part of my training in Science (which I never finished, since I changed the degree I was taking from Physics to EE half way) is what makes me a bit more robust (though not immune: none of us are, IMHO) to Propaganda.

        • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Also more broadly in STEM, the structured and analytical way of thinking

          I find a historical approach is useful to highlight this.

      • shawn1122@sh.itjust.works
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        Science is powerful but, as you’ve stated, balance is most critical. It was one of the most impactful biologists of the modern era that wrote “the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races” based on his theory of natural selection.

        As you can imagine, statements like these were used to justify the Atlantic slave trade, the genocide of indigineous people ie. “manifest destiny” and other colonial era horrors.

        One should not treat science or the words of scientists as absolute truth. Unfortunately it is not free from human greed or corruption.

    • Sc00ter@lemmy.zip
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      This is something i noticed early on with the generational divide and misinformation on the internet. Older generations never had the internet in school, and this were never taught how to identify a truthful source. Those of us that grew up with the internet were drilled into our heads, “not everything on the internet is true.” From both our teachers and the generation who believes everything on the internet.

      It was a big sticking point with my in-laws during covid. Theyd send me a link, and 5 minutes later id respond with, “that person never went to any college has no credentials to be commenting on the scientific and biological effects of vaccines. Here’s a published dr saying youre wrong.” Only to be met with, “you’re an idiot. Go get autism if you want.”

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        I think the flip side of this is Facebook or wherever the link was pushed to your in-laws (which is what I’d guess happened) feels… empowering. Those apps are literally optimized, with billions of dollars (and extensive science, especially psychology), to validate folk’s views in the pursuit of keeping them clicking. Their world’s telling them they’re right; of course your retort will feel offensive and wrong.

        They’re in a trap.

        And I still see lot of scientists posit ‘why is this happening?’ unironically on Twitter or something, which really frustrates me.

        • psud@aussie.zone
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          Every Facebook profile posted to /r/HermanCainAwards (the subreddit for mocking deluded people who died of COVID while spreading misinformation) was the same. Whatever the formula was it worked great at sucking in a specific sort of person

          • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            What’s incredible is Facebook is not liable for that at all.

            What if… I dunno, a giant school peddled that same info? Or some religious figure got a ton of people killed? There’s really not a good metaphor for Facebook, which is why folks don’t really know of the sheer influence they command, yet are still treated like a garage startup operating a fair forum that needs legal protection.

        • shawn1122@sh.itjust.works
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          Absolutely agree. The “internet” was not a harmful worldview reinforcing machine back when we were told not to cite GeoCities in our book reports.

          Asking people to betray their dopamine is a monumental task. It’s like like challenging any other addiction.

        • Taalnazi@lemmy.world
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          Best way to change that is to shut down algorithms that have that bias, and mandate media literacy.

          • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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            That doesn’t work because people like the algorithms, unfortunately. They win the attention war, and Trump is perfectly emblematic of this.

            It’s also not even about ‘political bias’. Toxicity is the natural end state.

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        I’ll provide a non-western perspective on this:

        My mother was born in mainland China, according to her, doctors were corrupt and would prescribe unnecessary medications or perform unnecessary medical procedures because the doctors were incentivised and get more money by doing so.

        That’s why now in the US, he maintains the same beliefs, reluctant to let me get antidepressant medication, because she see the as “crutches”, unnecessary “happy pills” for “weak” people, “too many side effects”, “harmful for health”, “these doctors probably don’t know anything”, “it’s all in your head”.

        It goes far as: “try this necklace that repels evil”, wtf lol.

        Also: Fucking Wechat and the fucking “herbal medicine”/TCM or whatever🤦‍♂️

        • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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          12 hours ago

          The profit motive haunts me as well. regardless of what service or product im buying. Living on planet earth was not a good call.

      • Soleos@lemmy.world
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        It’s not a new thing. The same issues were the case for television, radio, and newspapers. They had to teach media literacy before the internet too. You go back into the archives and you’ll see some wild misinformation that’s very reminiscent of what we see on the internet. We did have a brief few decades where we had a more consistent and adhered to set of standards, but these were by no means universal. The perception of reliable information is also skewed the combination of being less aware of misinformation when younger and by a unique period where mass reputable media were all saying the same thing… But that also meant they were leaving the same things out.

        But the internet did change things. Standards have been blown up, misinformation is much faster and the volume of it is much higher. Our brains couldn’t keep up with 24hr news channels, let alone the cesspools of social media we have now.

      • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Yep, maths and science are only partially about learning maths and science. The even more important purpose is learning critical reasoning skills, which is a requirement for media literacy.

          • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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            2 days ago

            When I was studying, I had a problem with a question in class and I asked the teacher and he, instead of giving me an answer or a tip, told me “Naturally I can explain it to you, also a second and third time, but soon you will forget it, first try better to find the solution by yourself, if you succeed you will have understood it and you will never forget it for the rest of your life”. It was a very good advice until now, almost 60 years after it. The need of help from others is always good, but only as last resource.

            • Minnels@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              I repair stuff at work and this is my everyday almost. Check how stuff works, then try to fix it. Very good advice but most people are too lazy to even try to understand or explore today. When people seem interested at what i am doing i try to explain to them how I think and what I do or how stuff works. I love it.

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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        I’d say critical thinking is divorced from any one subject. You can learn it in a humanities context just as easily as a scientific one.

    • Zyansheep@programming.dev
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      Specifically epistemology and concrete notions of degrees of truth and how truth is approximated by science.

      • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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        It is clear, you need some bases to be able to reasonice and understand the cause of an problem. You can find the cause of an problem why an engine don’t work with some basic knowledge about physics, but even an intelligent aborigen who has no knowledge about mecanics and physic never can, also not a person which only had memorized data without understandig it, can’t But the current education system priorice the latter, because of this there are a lot of integral idiots with graduation, which outside of their routine don’t understand anything.

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    2 days ago

    I studied history (and by that I mean I liked to watch documentaries) and as a kid I saw educational cartoons and Anime (yes anime) that showed how there was a huge backlash against telephone and telegraphy when they first came out. With farmers blaming telegraph wire for destroying crops or crop diseases and they would sometimes even sabotage the wires and poles.

    When I heard of the 5G bullshit that was literally what came to mind… it is incredible how eternal this form of ignorance is.

      • ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online
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        A 19th century Alex Jones sketch coming right up…

        "Gentlemen (and ladies please leave for it is not for your dainty hearts!) These devilish wires that are held upon stakes that plunge into the heart of God’s green earth are doing far more than blighting our crops and potatoes! It is this same wire that I have good sources on (show them the papers, John!) *John on another podium waves blank paper piles like they mean something * that afflicted the Irish potato that lead those heathen Catholics to come over here, lorded over by their prince in Rome whose true master is the Jews!

        And the main concern on all good Christian minds from these devilish telegraph wire is that they send an evil miasma that has been proven beyond all doubt (John! The proof!) That they even make the beasts of the land and water stray from the path God has lain forth and has sent them onto the path of SODOM! Gentlemen! They have turned the frogs onto sodomites!

        But fear not, I have a tonic that will prevent all manner of evil from entering your heart! For but a nickel I have pint flask of the Jones invigorator! Guaranteed to ensure proper masculine strength and function, with the ladies never questioning you, and thus rendering no need to beat them to prevent them from straying onto the path of sapphistry!"

    • AlolanYoda@mander.xyz
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      Which anime? I don’t recall watching anything along those lines, but it sounds like a show I’d enjoy

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        It was when I was growing up in the Middle East. They aired all manner of anime and mixed Japanese media (part live action part anime). That one I was thinking about was also Arabic dubbed and I dont recall the title.

        • BeeegScaaawyCripple@lemmy.world
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          (part live action part anime)

          i don’t know what that’s called with animation, but one of my friends had a little stop motion studio for a while and we called that “go motion” when we’d mix live action with stop motion.

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            It wasnt stop motion. They had a live action segment with a girl and a puppet or costumed character (my memory is super hazy. It was a late 80s, early 90s thing and I was a little kid) and when they spoke about what they wanted to show they would do some little gesture and short song and then it would go to the anime segment.

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    2 days ago

    I have no scientific education. I am still not retarded enough to believe any of the nonsensical conspiracies found online.

    Could it be that the key here is media competence and not a doctors degree?

    • Digit@lemmy.wtf
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      How do you determine they are “nonsensical conspiracies”?

      Could it be media induces in us a belief that we think ourselves “media competent”, such that we begin to presume to know, without scrutiny?

      … Certainly used to be my job, when I worked in advertising. Easier to induce in people, than to undo.

      Few seem of a Socratic bent, such as “All I know is I know nothing. And sometimes I forget even that much.”, preferring instead the feels of believing themselves smart and wise, not confronting the horror of how readily manipulated they are. … Sorry for my part, doing that to everybody who saw the adverts and corporate branding I made when I was “just doing my job”. Had I stayed in the industry, I dread to think what I’d be doing now with the power at the advertiser’s/marketer’s/propagandist’s disposal, able to cold read smart phone users, 24/7.

      I used to do it. And I’m not self deluded enough to think even my level of media awareness is in any way adequate a protection against it.

      But having said that… Yes, better media awareness(/“competence”), than “a doctors degree”. Having a doctorate makes sure you were obedient enough to get through the system, and makes you a special influencer target for such manipulations. Always seek another “2nd opinion”.

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      I’ve worked with doctors who believe this shit. When this all kicked off, they immediately discarded their education to embrace the Fox dogma.

      Area of study is definitely not the issue.

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        I’ve worked IT in healthcare and let me tell you, I’ve met some incredibly stupid doctors and learned just cause you’re a doctor doesn’t make you smart. And then I realized, there is someone at the bottom of every graduating class out there.

        What do you call someone who almost failed out of medical school? Doctor.

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      The key is, that for a lot of people reasoning and thinking is a hard work, because never learned it. I remember an interview with a MAGA voter about climate change and his response: “It’s a big lie, human beings can’t be the cause, because they are not capable of changing God’s creation”.

      • autriyo@feddit.org
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        Tbh, reasoning and thinking is hard work, even if you learned how to.

        And it’s getting increasingly harder to find reliable information, so you have to check the sources of your sources. And at some point down the rabbit hole stuff gets real complex, and maybe, you still haven’t figured out what’s true…

        So the layman has to trust someone, and in our age of disinformation, someone isn’t necessarily trustworthy. So between the day to day struggles and constant indoctrination, I get why people just hear what they want to hear. Still doesn’t excuse it though.

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        Zoiks! 😵‍💫 I know people keep saying “we’re cooked” but I think I’m actually starting to feel the heat lately

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          You can’t reasoning with people like these, even if they understand that the clima is changing, they say, it is Gods Will and we can do bothing to stop it. Business as usual, period. Yes, we are cooked because of these Australopithecus, irrelevant what say scientists and even with Nobel price, important what say the influencer in TikTok and YT.

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      I think it’s more about keeping yourself curious and reading stuff form reliable sources than actually getting a degree, which makes little sense. (I’m a physicist, and I’m totally ignorant about physiology, for instance, so I have to trust “people who know”, and these aren’t usually found on crappy YT or TikTok videos).

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      It’s not talking about a doctorate, it’s talking about actually taking education (of all levels) seriously because education is the primary means by which a populace becomes in innoculated against mis/disinformation.

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    I’ve seen a lot of the counter balance to this which is STEM folk not having respect for the humanities, rendering them empathetically underdeveloped.

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    i think that conspiracy theories are more about feeling special about knowing some secret knowledge, lots of people fall for this and even create conspiracy theories without realizing, no matter how smart they are