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This is similar to the other post where the nerds on the Ycombinator forum discussed Voat closure.

Is it me, or is everyone around here starting to see the matrix ever more clearly the more you hang around places like Poal?

It's like that meme of Sypher talking to Neo where he says "I no longer see code, I see blonde, brunette ... "

For example, when you first start to see the lies in mainstream media, it takes a while until you start to recognize their posts as false, correct, true only from a certain perspective, etc. But once you start to see the pattern, it is dead obvious to spot.

I am now starting to see people I thought were smart as only really really clever conspiracy theorists. They are EXCEPTIONAL at rationalizing absolutely anything away with with really clever arguments that sound plausible but aren't if you just stretch the argument into any dimension that the argument doesn't occupy.

Just read the Slashdot article linked above. It is absolutely amazing to me how obvious the thought pattern is. Just look at the number of permutations they will go through and the amount of vatriables they will work hard to align to justify an opinion that is clearly not their own and has been assigned to them by their social group.

It's absolutely astounding once you start to see it. And the patter repeats across all kinds of groups, but is most visible amongst the professional class that is either trained at a university level or in a parallel track where they are trained by these people.

Absolutely amazing.

This is similar to the other post where the nerds on the Ycombinator forum discussed Voat closure. Is it me, or is everyone around here starting to see the matrix ever more clearly the more you hang around places like Poal? It's like that meme of Sypher talking to Neo where he says "I no longer see code, I see blonde, brunette ... " For example, when you first start to see the lies in mainstream media, it takes a while until you start to recognize their posts as false, correct, true only from a certain perspective, etc. But once you start to see the pattern, it is dead obvious to spot. I am now starting to see people I thought were smart as only really really clever conspiracy theorists. They are EXCEPTIONAL at rationalizing absolutely anything away with with really clever arguments that sound plausible but aren't if you just stretch the argument into any dimension that the argument doesn't occupy. Just read the Slashdot article linked above. It is absolutely amazing to me how obvious the thought pattern is. Just look at the number of permutations they will go through and the amount of vatriables they will work hard to align to justify an opinion that is clearly not their own and has been assigned to them by their social group. It's absolutely astounding once you start to see it. And the patter repeats across all kinds of groups, but is most visible amongst the professional class that is either trained at a university level or in a parallel track where they are trained by these people. Absolutely amazing.

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[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Intelligence is the ability to use analytical and critical thinking.

The rest of abilities are just skills that you can gain.

Intelligence is inborn. You can't gain real intelligence.

[–] • 0 pt

I am no longer sure real intelligence exists, only pattern matching.

Watch: I bet you cannot define analytical and critical thinking in a way that distinguishes it from non critical and non analytical thinking.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

It simply means being able to understand things by yourself by understanding the difference between plausible and implausible, instead of being spoon feed by mass media propaganda and other authoritarian sources.

[–] • 0 pt

I don't find this a convincing description in the least. Every single person in the Slashdot thread thinks they are thinking for them selves.

How do you know you are critically thinking instead of not critically thinking? Or thinking for your self versus simply justifying an opinion you have already invested so much into that it would hurt too much to let go?

I used to think I was smart. Now I just see groupings of behaviours in individuals and cannot really tell smart from dumb people because I cannot tell if their wetware is deficient, their internal database is lacking data or they have been programmed as social animals to beleive what they beleive.

What I am starting to see are groupings of behaviour and beleif systems across broad segments of the population in some interesting ways.

What is unique about the Poal (and Voats) of the world is that because we beleive we are small in number we get to see their behaviour patterns and ours at the same time. They only see their own behaviour and beleif patters and are blind to other possible permutations.

In other words, we aren't smarter or better at critical thinking, we are simply seeing more patterns than them because of our relative position in society currently.

If we were in power, the inverse would be true, we would only see our self selected behaviour patterns and they would see theirs and ours.