This is something that I have noticed getting much worse over the last couple years. I have received the "Obama is a Muslim" chain mail a couple times, etc. But this really caught my attention:
Maybe the Internet itself has inherently agnotological side effects. People graze all day on information tailored to their existing worldview.
And reading a bit of Dawklins lately as well makes me wonder why people are so dumb?
Too much internet, too many technology changes in very short time, too much information easily available to sort out before the uninformed read it and accept it. Editors used to cleanse the crap out of print news and such, but now anybody with an idea opens a webpage and sucks in weak minded fools who believe anything they see here.
Yes, I'm a Ted Kazinski fan and ready to move out to a cabin in Montana wilderness soon.
I used to think I knew something, but after a while you begin to realize its all just a pathetic dog and pony show. The people who think they know something are always the ones causing trouble.
You get poor information when you visit unreliable sites. If you want to read unedited bs ranting and raving read blogs if you want information that continues to be edited even though the wanna be unibomber says it a thing of the past continue to read newspapers in an online form. Same people who would be writing for print. If you are naive enough to assume that everything you read is true (see spinal tap "I believe virtually everything I read.") than sure the Internet is going to be a problem for you but if you have even the slightest ability to evaluate information than you can weed out the bs.
amen . . . maybe we can all think this through after we die. see previous threads. the internet has not created anything new here. this is the state of humanity.
There's no such thing as "too much information", but as in all other things it's "buyer beware". It is our responsibility to be able to evaluate the information we are exposed to. There is a great deal of very valuable and accurate information on the internet. In fact, some of the best journalism practiced today has been done by amatuers, for free, and published only on the internet. Also, a great deal of what is passed off as "journalism" in the newspapers, in magazines, and on TV, is pure bull shit.
I find all the Obama is a Muslim, and Intelligent Design crap that's out there to be absolutely hilarious. Too often, people just believe what they want to believe.
As for the "consensus" on anthropogenic global warming - just remember that "consensus" has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not something is true. There was a time when the consensus in modern medicine was that stomach ulcers were caused by stress. It took a determined doctor/scientist, working completely against the grain of "known" science to prove that most ulcers are the result of bacterial infection. Also, evolution was no less a fact when there was only one person on earth who believed it was. What we don't know about climate is orders of magnitude greater than what we do know. I wouldn't be surprised if, one day, scientists bust a gut laughing about how back in the old days, supposedly smart people thought that increasing atmospheric levels of CO2 from one thirty-third of one percent to one twenty fifth of one percent would cause global climate catastrophe.
In my opinion, free and abundant exchange of information is for the better.
And to set the record straight -
1) Obama is not a muslim, his true faith is personal and a bit of a mystery to most.
2) I and most others believe in "God". It is pointless to argue as to the details of creation, etc. It isn't fundamental. And I don't see creation science convincing evolututions to beleive in God, or vice versa.
3) Nobody knows for sure! I keep hearing about scientists that think we are entering an ice age! The only thing that is fact here, is that the Earth has a history of climate change. So there must at least be the possibility that it isn't our fault, and we can't stop it. But I see no harm in reducing pollution, conservation, etc.
I've been a gumby longer than you've been climbing.
