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I'm not sure what to think of this, but ever since about 2014 the world's "thinking" has bifurcated. We have narrative bifurcation. On many issues there are two camps with extremely different beliefs. Sometimes I take one side or the other, and sometimes I think that the actual truth is a complex mixture and both camps are wrong, and yet most people fall into one of two camps holding views with little nuance which are severely bifurcated from each other. Some examples:

Trump is a criminal and Putin puppet -vs- Trump is being taken out by the system he threatens

Climate change is real and damaging -vs- Climate change isn't happening or is all for the good

Canola and other seed oils are very healthy -vs- Seed oils are toxic and very unhealthy

Plant based diets are very healty -vs- Carnivore diets are the healthiest

Russia is going to invade Europe next -vs- Russia won't go much further and only wants to disable Ukraine

I'm less interested in these particular topics as I am in the general pattern of having two very different sets of beliefs on so many issues.

I don't remember it being like this in the past.

I'm tempted to conjecture that some outside force is trying to divide the West ideologically in order to collapse it, and is taking advantage of our free speech to do it, and is laughing about it over vodka and baijiu.

HoloKat 1y ago

I think this is the result of the internet publishing evolving. In the past you had your news and your experts and you took them at face value. Now it’s really easy to debunk any news source or any expert. Information is readily available in all sorts of formats.

The problem is that people like clean cut answers to everything- it makes things simple. This usually leads to extremes. And when your algo or community enables you to join a small group of extremes, you start thinking that’s the truth. We form bubbles and think we are correct and the other guys are idiots.

It seems to me the truth is always much more complex than people make it out to be. It’s somewhere in between extremes. But not always. Basically you have to look at everything without prior conclusions about another thing, and people seem to have a hard time doing that.

I guess the short answer is: information bubbles. 🫧

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Discussion

pitiunited 1y ago

💯

HoloKat 1y ago

I kind of combined 2 different concepts here into one but they are somewhat separate probably just 2 of 50 other factors.

Basically you have better access to information (probably combined with inability to properly interpret it), and bubbles. But there’s probably way more to this.

Mike Dilger ☑️ 1y ago

Yeah I think that is right. I"m listening to a YouTube lecture for the University of Central Asia on this topic and it is worldwide, and I think they are driving at this same conclusion ... I'll see I am still watching it.

HoloKat 1y ago

Social media also rewards edgy content with spins. Brevity wins and nuance is lost. You’ve got your clickbait garbage and rushed reporting optimizing for ad views vs accuracy + 100 other things