Misinformation and Naivety

People are so naive.  Not only are they naive, but they are also pumped full of misinformation.  I see it all the time.  Humans like to short circuit critical thinking by using heuristics.  The heuristics seem logical to them.  Many of their heuristics are embedded in a deep confirmation bias and they don’t recognize it.

Most of the things being asserted are totally false comparisons.  Correlation doesn’t mean causation.  You learn that if you understand statistics.  It’s also not racist to criticize someone when they are truly stupid. But it makes great clickbait news.

Here is a fabulous Twitter thread.  Science by itself isn’t always correct.  Read the thread.  You will see how movements get created and not for the good.  The luminaries of the day embraced “Eugenics”.  California, you know the place where all new ideas come from (another heuristic), was quick to embrace the idea and the government sterilized people so they wouldn’t reproduce.  Fast forward to today, and we have idiotic policies on shutdowns, mask-wearing, vaccines and lots of other things.

Remember “social distancing of six feet”.  Turns out that wasn’t based in science at all.  Just some idea from 100 years ago.  Panic and fear is a great way to motivate people to do what you want them to do.  As Ronald Reagan said, “the most fearful words you can hear are I am from the government and here to help.”  Turns out, the government policies did a tremendous amount of damage over the last year.  The Federal Reserve is papering it over.

Of course, paper isn’t very strong and eventually, it will all come out in the wash.  We are already seeing inflationary pressure.  Lumber prices are up 198% over the last year and going higher.  Food prices aren’t going lower.  Government transfer payments to individuals are making it hard to hire workers.  They would rather sit at home and collect a check.  I have spoken with CEOs in various industries that cannot find delivery workers or lower-level job workers to work for them.

Most people do not remember inflation.  I am old enough to remember it.  It’s an artificial tax on your income.

When I look at Joe Biden’s cabinet, nothing is done on merit.  It’s all done for virtue signaling.  When I look at his policies, it’s even worse.  He looks like Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to me, in way over his head.

News organizations in the US are complicit with reinforcing bad information and have been for more than two decades at least.  As Glenn Reynolds says, “If you think of them as Democratic operatives it all makes sense.”

For example, when there are a bunch of wildfires in California.  It must be climate change.  Of course, heat by itself doesn’t cause a wildfire.  But, mismanagement of forests does.  So does not keeping the electrical infrastructure grid up to date.  That extends to any event and now the elite will use climate change to enforce a more restrictive life.  Of course, it won’t affect them.  By the way, a lot of the assertions behind global warming have been debunked by either time or science.

People hear a story about congressman Matt Gaetz.  They don’t like Matt Gaetz because he doesn’t espouse the beliefs of their religion.  Other people like that Matt Gaetz speaks out.  Today it turns out the information on Matt Gaetz was fabricated.  What will happen?

People hear a story about how racist signs were put up.  They protest.  Turns out, it’s all a hoax.  Yet, they still cling to their belief that everything is racist and there is systemic racism in society.  Of course, this is not the first example of this. It’s happened for years and years as people seeking victimhood try to achieve it at the expense of their peers.

Here is another one.  “The GOP is the party of corporations.  The Democrats are the party of the little people.”  That might have been true in 1920.  It’s not true today.  The GOP looks like the party of small businesses and the Democrats run the corporations and unions.

People assert that conservatives don’t like change.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  They don’t like progressives.  When you make the choice a bunch of false choices then sure, we don’t like change.  But, conservatives embrace innovation especially when it improves the quality of their life.

Most of the conservatives I know just want to go on with their lives with as little government interference as possible. Liberals I know aren’t like that.  You must be made to care, and they will use the power of anything they can get their hands on to enforce it.

We have gotten ourselves in a pickle over the last year.  It’s going to get worse, not better.

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