Nobody is stupid for being manipulated. That line of thinking only encourages people to double down when they realize they are wrong, to avoid being seen as stupid.
I think that’s a big part of the problem. Nobody is 100% right all of the time. There’s no self-improvement without the ability to say “okay, this is how I could have done X better, I’ll try this next time.”
The opposite of “dumb” is not “all-knowing”. It’s the desire and ability to gain new knowledge, and to apply that knowledge to known and new situations.
Taking everything you hear or read at face value and shifting the blame for the consequences on those who’ve provided you with wrong information effectively means you expect the world to treat you like a helpless idiot unable to think for yourself. That can’t possibly be what you’re aiming for.
Taking it one step further, would you be to blame if you passed a piece of misinformation on to your buddy or family, you yourself believing it to be correct? You couldn’t be to blame, because fact-checking was the job of whomever gave it to you. Only they’ve got it from somebody else, … where will the blame game end? Would you introduce a two-class society divided into people whose job it is to check their facts, and those who are to take everything at face value?
It’s also impossible to gain new knowledge without questioning what’s currently believed to be correct information. Only a few decades ago, it was common ‘knowledge’ that a good husband needs to show his wife where her place is once in a while. Go back a bit further and people ‘knew’ how to recognise a witch by her birthmarks. A bit further back Ignaz Semmelweis was committed to the madhouse because he tried to establish a rule that doctors should wash their hands and instruments between an autopsy and a surgery.
The powerful people of that time didn’t mislead you. They gave you what they believed was correct information.
The only thing that works in the long term is when personal responsibility is both possible and expected from every person. And that’s what many people fear.
I think that’s a big part of the problem. Nobody is 100% right all of the time. There’s no self-improvement without the ability to say “okay, this is how I could have done X better, I’ll try this next time.”
The opposite of “dumb” is not “all-knowing”. It’s the desire and ability to gain new knowledge, and to apply that knowledge to known and new situations.
Taking everything you hear or read at face value and shifting the blame for the consequences on those who’ve provided you with wrong information effectively means you expect the world to treat you like a helpless idiot unable to think for yourself. That can’t possibly be what you’re aiming for.
Taking it one step further, would you be to blame if you passed a piece of misinformation on to your buddy or family, you yourself believing it to be correct? You couldn’t be to blame, because fact-checking was the job of whomever gave it to you. Only they’ve got it from somebody else, … where will the blame game end? Would you introduce a two-class society divided into people whose job it is to check their facts, and those who are to take everything at face value?
It’s also impossible to gain new knowledge without questioning what’s currently believed to be correct information. Only a few decades ago, it was common ‘knowledge’ that a good husband needs to show his wife where her place is once in a while. Go back a bit further and people ‘knew’ how to recognise a witch by her birthmarks. A bit further back Ignaz Semmelweis was committed to the madhouse because he tried to establish a rule that doctors should wash their hands and instruments between an autopsy and a surgery.
The powerful people of that time didn’t mislead you. They gave you what they believed was correct information.
The only thing that works in the long term is when personal responsibility is both possible and expected from every person. And that’s what many people fear.