There’s a difference between real knowledge and junk food knowledge
I find Facebook and other social media to be a really enlightening look into the lives and workings of people I kinda know.
Not a day goes by when I don’t think about a quote from poet Jean De la Fontaine, who said that Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.
Every morning, I know that there will be a conspiracy theory from at least a dozen people on my list about how the NSA is trying to read my email to my mom, Monsanto secretly controls the world, or we’re all about to die from ______.
There’s also going to be the conservative rant from someone that says that Obama is ready to take all our guns and force us into hospitals next Thursday and the liberal rant that says that if we ignore the world’s problems, the world’s problems will ignore us.
More interesting to me is how often people mistake junk food intelligence for actual intelligence. They mistake some kernel of data for a self-proving fact, knowledge for intelligence.
The issue for me isn’t the spread of seriously questionable “knowledge.” It isn’t the childish simplification of seriously complex situations. It isn’t even the almost pathological willful ignorance.
It’s the fact that these people are bores.
Good god, stop being such a bore. It’s exhausting.
And it’s akin to walking around with spinach in your teeth and refusing to get rid of it. See the video below.
So why do I bother keeping them on? Because the danger is becoming one of them. To exclude opinions not in line with my own because I find them so ridiculous. It’s ignoring the balanced meal for the Happy Meal. After all, convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
Moreover, who am I to say anything?
Me: (putting on shoes) I’m heading up to Harlem.
Her: Why?
Me: It’s the only place with a KFC.
Her: You’re going all the way to Harlem to go to KFC?
Me: (thinking) Yes.
Location: heading to the gym shortly
Mood: enjoying the fall-like temps again
Music: Sometimes I wish I could Calm the storm
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7 replies on “Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires”
there’s a kfc at 42, and at 34th, and penn station. I’ve got the city’s kfc scene scoped out
The 34th Street one is no more and the Penn Station one charges ridiculous prices – literally double what other KFC’s charge. The 42nd Street one is new to me!
We should really combine our KFC research.
So, what happened to 72nd to Canal?
It was fun but too time-consuming; plus Rain and I saw the show very differently. So it was just another thing we did and stopped. Sad really, I liked it.
[…] And the reason behind this is because everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires. […]
Wonderful blog! I found it while browsing on Yahoo
News. Do you have any tips on how to get listed in
Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
Many thanks
[…] One of the few things I remember from my first year in Prof. Maas‘ Psych 101 Class – waaaaaay back in 1990 – was the idea of confirmation bias, which essentially echoes poet Jean De la Fontaine idea that Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires. […]