So I was watching Jordan B Peterson‘s video – I will talk about him later. Look at the bottom right corner on YouTube (in full screen):
Looks like it’s straight off a Beutepanzer:
Half the plot for the next Da Vinci Code is in the bag: “Sergey Brin is Himmler’s long lost great grandson.”
More generally, here are some tips for making conspiracy theories.
You will need:
- them, who are united by a trait and a
- common goal, generally an evil one, signified with a
- symbol, that recurs in all kinds of unexpected places.
If you’re low on inspiration,
- get 100 of anything that has a variety of traits: banknotes, films, pieces of jewellery, anything
- single out the traits and you will surely find a recurrent one
- fit a goal and a type of people on as you see fit.
Never forget that everything
- happens for a reason
- has a deeper meaning
- is all part of a connected universe
If anyone tries to disprove you, don’t worry because it’s impossible to prove you wrong. After all, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence – and evidence is evidence.
On a more serious note, this TED talk on who controls the world the nature of complexity is pretty good. And every once in a while you will be reminded that just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean you’re wrong: Inside VW’s Campaign of Trickery
P.S. Over 1,300 followers on WordPress! So excited to have you guys, thank you.
P.P.S. Are you following this chap? He’s awesome.
A millennial's musings 
I adore the modern flat earth conspiracy, but sadly, these magnificent theorists miss one logical (historical) flaw in their otherwise superb argument: if the earth were flat, cats would have pushed everything off already.
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Haha, well, let’s be honest, cats invented the internet, so the theorists are under their paw
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Nice one. Liked this line specially “After all, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence – and evidence is evidence.”
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Haha, it’s so easy to trick ourselves.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool” R. Feynman
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“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself”
I think that it is extremely important. I have questions about this.
Does the person fooling himself know that he is fooling himself?
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John Oliver has a nice parody on conspiracy theorists. (youtube).
Your challenge, design a *simple* three step program by which we can get 1% more of the population to think critically.
Your solution must be, first off, communicable to those people who we would like to have think more critically. That is, they understand that your solution is indeed a “program.” This so that they, themselves, can use this program — later. And, secondly, yet more importantly, work when applied to these same people.
You may use any and all resources available to you — aside form torture. Upon successful completion and demonstration of your solution I will personally contribute One Billion Dollars, to ensure that your program is adopted by the United Nations.
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Anony Mole, I accept your challenge! I need clarification though. What is the problem that requires critical thinking? I think you want me to help people develop their attitude to a statement – is that it? Or is it to answer a question, consider a hypothesis, etc?
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To think critically (akin to thinking clearly), that is, to be able to temporarily suspend one’s own beliefs in order to objectively examine a statement, premise or theory.
How to teach someone that they won’t necessarily lose themselves by “trying on the hat” of someone else’s opinions or postulations.
Many people become so intensely wedded to their beliefs that this shell becomes impenetrable. The challenge is to come up with a means to both give such people the understanding that maintaining this shell may not be to their best interest. In addition to teaching them how to teach others the same lesson.
Thinking critically should apply to all information. But you can pick a single venue or discipline for study if you like.
Step 1:
“The sky is blue”
“No, I live in London, the sky is gray.”
“Well, can you ‘imagine’ it blue?”
“Maybe.”
Step 2:
???
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Ok, so it is a statement we’re responding to. OK, I will prob have something for you later today 🙂
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I continue to think on this topic. What I’ve deduced, thus far, is we need a simple yet powerful way to quickly overcome someone’s, anyone’s biases.
Found this on Medium:
View at Medium.com
The dozens and dozens of biases, (there’s a useful flashcard ui in there), point to the need for a Bias-Knife to cut our ties to our presuppositions, before we can ever consider to think critically about any topic.
As very young children we have far fewer biases, I wonder if defining a method for retrospection, taking us all the way back, in our minds, to an imaginary childhood, might be a way to do this.
Thoughts?
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Hmm, I read a paper that concluded that bias training doesn’t result in a reduction in biases.
The question you asked is hugely complicated, but I guess the answer is the Socratic method. What do you think?
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Fair point. Maybe Socrates had perfected bias challenging all those centuries ago. If all you need to do is answer a question with a question — forcing the asker to reconsider the foundation of their own question…
Is self-reflection the first phase in critical thinking? Are questions themselves the answer? Maybe, what do you think? (grin)
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Yeah, basically you question things until you cannot question them any more and pick up what you are left with. I feel accepting ambiguity is a huge part of thinking
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Where the white light of day fades to the black of night the gray of dusk prevails.
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That sounds like a quote, but Google hasn’t heard of it! Well said 🙂
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Very nice post which I will apply to my story. Thanks! And, btw, “the problem that requires critical thinking” is obvious: Religion. (PS: check out my new post, “Text messages from God” before I delete it. Or not. There is no right or wrong. Also, 1300 followers is a testament to your genius. I just wish more of them would make comments so I could “follow” your audience. Thanks Dr!
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Haha, thanks George! I think religion is uber complicated, but I think I understand the problem, which is “how to critically examine a statement”
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You wrote,” “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself”
Does the person fooling himself know that he is fooling himself?
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If they do, it’s called insight. I imagine that most people don’t. I think you mentioned this earlier, but it got lost in the comments – sorry!
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I believe or should I say organizations not governments infiltrate like diseases and penetrate into people’s minds,media,any type of frequincy,etc. to cause an effect on control of what it is there after or testing what they know will happen next. Some theories must be left alone. How can explanations be answered when they already there. Examples: attacks in your own soil means blaming others to get what your after in their country.
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Everything doesn’t happen for a reason. Sometimes we are just defective.
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