require having empathy and caring about other people
Sure, but they also require that you believe what you’re seeing on the news.
I have empathy and care about other people. But, my mom is a conspiracy nut. She goes on rants about chemtrails, or the dangers of fluoride, or 5G, or nanoparticles. I want what’s best for her, and I sympathize with her, but I don’t believe any of these things are true. So, if she tells me I should change my behaviour because of these conspiracies, I’m not going to do it. The fact I continue to use WiFi doesn’t mean I lack empathy or don’t care about other people, it means that I don’t think her conspiracy theories are correct.
My mother is (more or less) a person who cares about other people, but she wouldn’t put on a mask during COVID because she didn’t believe that it was a real disease, and didn’t believe that masks worked, and she also did believe conspiracies that masks were dangerous to wear.
My mother thinks that the mainstream press can’t be trusted about anything. Unfortunately, the people she believes are telling the truth are essentially anonymous accounts on some conspiracy forum. Many of them get their news from Newsmax or Infowars or the KGB.
I think the mainstream press can be trusted about many things, but that they’re also in bed with big business and will often uncritically just report what a lot of big companies say without challenging it.
So, when the mainstream press says there’s a pandemic and that we need to adopt certain behaviours to avoid it spreading, I believe it and want to do those things, my mother doesn’t. But, when the press says that OpenAI has a new model that’s on the verge of being sentient, that broke out of its containment and hacked another site, I think that’s an absolute bullshit way of framing what happened.
It really comes down to how the US has slowly allowed the rich to take control and to warp everything to benefit themselves. Schools are not funded properly, and kids graduate without critical thinking skills. Media is captive to the wealthy interests, and at best is sensationalist and shallow, with talking heads yelling at each-other, or showing helicopter-shots of car chases. At worst, it’s outright lies and propaganda favouring one party or one special interest group. And, because the US is such a big force in the world, and such a big source of media, this affects the whole world.
If people can’t agree on a shared set of facts about the world, they can’t make rational decisions. So, someone not wearing a mask might mean they lack empathy, or it might mean that they don’t believe the news about COVID, or it might mean that they think the story of a major CHEMTRAIL attack that was leaked on the conspiracy forum wasn’t actually real.
Sure, but they also require that you believe what you’re seeing on the news.
I have empathy and care about other people. But, my mom is a conspiracy nut. She goes on rants about chemtrails, or the dangers of fluoride, or 5G, or nanoparticles. I want what’s best for her, and I sympathize with her, but I don’t believe any of these things are true. So, if she tells me I should change my behaviour because of these conspiracies, I’m not going to do it. The fact I continue to use WiFi doesn’t mean I lack empathy or don’t care about other people, it means that I don’t think her conspiracy theories are correct.
My mother is (more or less) a person who cares about other people, but she wouldn’t put on a mask during COVID because she didn’t believe that it was a real disease, and didn’t believe that masks worked, and she also did believe conspiracies that masks were dangerous to wear.
My mother thinks that the mainstream press can’t be trusted about anything. Unfortunately, the people she believes are telling the truth are essentially anonymous accounts on some conspiracy forum. Many of them get their news from Newsmax or Infowars or the KGB.
I think the mainstream press can be trusted about many things, but that they’re also in bed with big business and will often uncritically just report what a lot of big companies say without challenging it.
So, when the mainstream press says there’s a pandemic and that we need to adopt certain behaviours to avoid it spreading, I believe it and want to do those things, my mother doesn’t. But, when the press says that OpenAI has a new model that’s on the verge of being sentient, that broke out of its containment and hacked another site, I think that’s an absolute bullshit way of framing what happened.
It really comes down to how the US has slowly allowed the rich to take control and to warp everything to benefit themselves. Schools are not funded properly, and kids graduate without critical thinking skills. Media is captive to the wealthy interests, and at best is sensationalist and shallow, with talking heads yelling at each-other, or showing helicopter-shots of car chases. At worst, it’s outright lies and propaganda favouring one party or one special interest group. And, because the US is such a big force in the world, and such a big source of media, this affects the whole world.
If people can’t agree on a shared set of facts about the world, they can’t make rational decisions. So, someone not wearing a mask might mean they lack empathy, or it might mean that they don’t believe the news about COVID, or it might mean that they think the story of a major CHEMTRAIL attack that was leaked on the conspiracy forum wasn’t actually real.
My balls would like a word with you regarding nanoparticles…
I don’t want to talk to your balls.