Comment on US Politicians praying inside the House of Representatives
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 3 weeks agoThe truest line ever uttered in film…
“A person can be smart. But people are dumb, panicky dangerous animals, and you know it.” – Kay from MiB
We’ve all been hardwired with groupthink. We had to be. When a member of your tribe comes running by in a panic, you don’t have time to stop and think what the hell is he running from?, you just start running along with him. It’s the difference between living to hunt another day or getting killed by a bigger predator than you are.
The more people that are running. The more important it is (to our brain) to just start legging it. No one wants to be the straggler at the back that gets picked off. For that reason, group-think and herd-mentality skews incredibly towards the simplistic. In terms of evolution, there’s no time to worry about the why…you just trust that if everyone else is running, you probably should be too.
A single person…and individual that has critical thinking skills and the ability to look at the wider context, can overcome that instint. They can stop and say “hmmm…maybe I should look and see if this really is something that is going to harm me.” They can reason themselves out of group-think.
But without that context. Without that critical thinking, you have almost no choice but to rely on the fact that if someone is telling you to run, they must know more than you…so get it in gear.
Whether that person is telling you to run from a predator, or to hate immigrants, it’s all due to the same inherent mentality in humans.
Grumpyleb@lemmus.org 3 weeks ago
Spot on regarding the person vs group. Being a fan of history I’m amazed at how far we’ve come technologically, but how our base instincts haven’t changed. Even in the face of all the evidence about our behaviour historically, we repeat our mistakes time and again.
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
It’s the good-ol’ lizard brain and it isn’t going away.
It’s the part of the brain that controls emotions, moods, fear, fight-or-flight, etc… The Limbic Cortex
The sole purpose of critical thinking skills and knowledge of things like history, civics, etc… (whether that comes from education, experience or just good old fashioned intellectual curiosity) is to give the rest of our brain the context necessary to override that lizard brain. (In my opinion).
Too many people just don’t care enough about the world around them to bother with that and are content to just let their lizard brain run things. It’s these people that are susceptible to group-think, and it’s these people (ironically) who think that they are ones who are thinking for themselves when in reality it’s quite the opposite.
Grumpyleb@lemmus.org 3 weeks ago
I’m seconding that opinion, makes a lot of sense. It’s so funny, I’m not an American, but I do have friends and family there, yet I find myself outraged by maga and this speed run into fascism. I can’t imagine what it must be like living there these days.
The dumbing down policy certainly worked.
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
As a Canadian I look on in absolute horror like a deer spotting the hunter in the woods.