this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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No, people do not change their opinions based on new facts. It's important to not think of it like that because even non "indoctrinated" people we would all consider rational work like this. If you really want to change people's opinions on things, especially things that are important, you need to know how our brains work to get there and you shouldn't think less of people for not changing their minds immediately. Studies have shown our rationality is not a means of making decisions but a means of explaining our decisions. I highly recommend this Vsauce video on the topic. It's a great watch. https://youtu.be/_ArVh3Cj9rw
I first saw this video in early 2021 after spending a lot of time trying my best to show people they were wrong about COVID misinformation and election misinformation. It was a nice epilogue to that period of my life.
Okay, but you should be warned, it won't change my opinion.
I do think people forget how much contrary information is in the discourse when they try and make an argument and discover that their audience is unmoved. It's like talking to a 12 year old about legal drug use after they've received all their information from 90s Sitcoms and the D.A.R.E. program's most insane police officers.
So much of our understanding of the world is a composite of our prior accumulated experiences and inputs. A single contrary data point will only provoke skepticism, as it collides with a bulwark of rebuttals. Shaping someone's views takes time, and works best on people who haven't spent years/decades inoculating themselves to the message. That's why propaganda exists in the first place. A steady repetition of claims and data points in favor of a particular outlook will leave people resistant to opposing views.
That said...
There are some good notes in the video, but so much of the article seems to want to rehash general logical fallacies, without addressing the underlying nature of the claims. This gets us to an argument from fallacy wherein you attempt to dismiss a claim entirely because of bad logic. "The sun rises in the east because God wills it!" is a fallacious claim, but I would not look for the sun to rise in the West as a result.
Also...
You can't help grapple with the fact that Microsoft is one of the biggest modern contributors to misinformation, thanks to their massive investment in AI. And, mumble mumble Gates was on the Epstein Jet mumble mumble, which isn't so much a refutation of the video but a note on the motivations of the authors.
Aside from the kid-sex stuff, Epstein is known for circulating some broadly ignorant and socially detrimental views on international finance, neoliberal economic reforms, and foreign policies. It can be argued that the Extended Mind Theory of Consciousness is pseudo-pscyhological drivel (particularly in how this video attempts to glamorize it, raise the stakes, and tie it into the fucking Fermi Paradox). This reads like the kind of overly dramatic pronouncements he and his friend Steven Pinker are best known for.
Which, again, isn't even to say the core ideas are wrong. But the people pitching them... It's like getting a lecture on the moral hazard of warmongering from Dick Cheney and Bill Kristol. Or a condemnation of sexual assault from Donald Trump.