Gerald Maclennon's Blog - Posts Tagged "social-media"
America's New Age of Anti-Reason
This short article by one Ray Williams seized my attention in the year 2014. In it, he explains the very real dangers of a nation being ruled by social media mentality. I believe Willams has hit the proverbial nail on the head. Ergo... I place it on my blog
We're creating a nation of dummies... angry dummies who feel they have the right, the authority and the need not only to comment on everything, but to make sure their voice is heard above the rest, and to drag down any opposing views through personal attacks, loud repetition and confrontation.
Bill Keller, writing in the New York Times argues that the anti-intellectual elitism is not an elitism of wisdom, education, experience or knowledge. The new elite are the angry social media posters, those who can shout loudest and more often, a clique of bullies and malcontents baying together like dogs cornering a fox. Too often it's a combined elite of the anti-intellectuals not those who can voice the most cogent, most coherent response.
Together they foment a rabid culture of anti-rationalism where every fact is suspect; every rational thought is the enemy; where critical thinking is a tool of the devil.
Keller also notes that the herd mentality takes over online; the anti-intellectuals become the metaphorical equivalent of an angry lynch mob when anyone either challenges one of the mob beliefs or posts anything outside the mob's self-limiting set of values.
This growing mob of imbeciles accepts without questioning, believes without weighing the choices, joins the pack because in a culture where convenience rules, real individualism is "too much hard work"... thinking takes too much time. It gets in the way of the immediacy of social media... of the online experience.
-- from an article by Ray Williams, Psychology Today, June 2014
We're creating a nation of dummies... angry dummies who feel they have the right, the authority and the need not only to comment on everything, but to make sure their voice is heard above the rest, and to drag down any opposing views through personal attacks, loud repetition and confrontation.
Bill Keller, writing in the New York Times argues that the anti-intellectual elitism is not an elitism of wisdom, education, experience or knowledge. The new elite are the angry social media posters, those who can shout loudest and more often, a clique of bullies and malcontents baying together like dogs cornering a fox. Too often it's a combined elite of the anti-intellectuals not those who can voice the most cogent, most coherent response.
Together they foment a rabid culture of anti-rationalism where every fact is suspect; every rational thought is the enemy; where critical thinking is a tool of the devil.
Keller also notes that the herd mentality takes over online; the anti-intellectuals become the metaphorical equivalent of an angry lynch mob when anyone either challenges one of the mob beliefs or posts anything outside the mob's self-limiting set of values.
This growing mob of imbeciles accepts without questioning, believes without weighing the choices, joins the pack because in a culture where convenience rules, real individualism is "too much hard work"... thinking takes too much time. It gets in the way of the immediacy of social media... of the online experience.
-- from an article by Ray Williams, Psychology Today, June 2014
Positivity and Hope for Our Children rather than Alarmism and Despair
2021. It is time to give children of this world a diet of positivity and hope rather than alarmist despair.
Swedish teen, Greta Thunberg, and those who “condone her alarmist nonsense” are tragically destroying young people, according to Australian Commentator Alan Jones.
“We have learned that vulnerable students have fallen through the cracks over coronavirus,” he said.
“We have been told that schools don't have a proper review process to prevent - a frightening term - suicide clusters.
“Young people are constantly comparing themselves to others on social media and suffering mental health problems as a result.”
Mr Jones said there are “two blunt answers” as to how this crisis has “accelerated to this point”.
“The first is an appalling absence of political leadership,” he said.
“But young people are being confronted by uninformed, disinformed, illiterate and often innumerate protest leaders urging young people to march for causes they don’t understand based on arguments that can’t be proven and trading on fear which is destructive.
“Why have leaders in the western world given international exposure to the uninformed and dis-informed utterances of Greta Thunberg?”
Greta Thunberg’s “dishonest, alarmist rubbish” is now seeing its manifestation in massive emotional and psychological instability in young people, according to Mr Jones.
“It is a farce; a sickening farce,” says Alan Jones.
-------------------------------------------------------
The following "Wake Up Call" comes from an anonymous source on Facebook:
To all the school kids going on “strike” for Climate Change.
You are the first generation who has required air-conditioning in every classroom.
You want TV in every room and your classes are all computerized.
You spend all day and night on electronic devices.
More than ever, you don’t walk or ride bikes to school but arrive in caravans of private cars that choke suburban roads, pollute the air and worsen rush hour traffic.
You are the biggest consumers of manufactured goods ever and update perfectly good expensive luxury items to stay trendy.
Your entertainment comes from electric devices.
Furthermore, the people driving your protests are the same people who insist on artificially inflating the population growth through immigration, which increases the need for energy, manufacturing and transport.
The more people we have, the more forest and bush land we clear and more of the environment is destroyed.
How about this…
Tell your teachers to switch off the air-conditioning.
Walk or ride to school.
Switch off your devices and read a book.
Make a sandwich instead of buying manufactured fast food.
No, none of this will happen because you are selfish, badly educated, virtue signalling little turds, inspired by the adults around you who crave a feeling of having a “noble cause” while they indulge themselves in Western luxury and unprecedented quality of life.”
Wake up, grow up and shut up until you are sure of the facts before protesting.
----------------------------------------------------------
Again... Australian Commentator Alan Jones:
Consider this: there are alarming incidents -- and they are increasing -- of suicide and attempted suicide among today's teenagers. Even more are considering it. Many experts are saying this is the tip of the iceberg and these incidents won't go away.
There are so many other factors at work here: social media that can say anything it wants about any other person. Kids live off of this stuff and, as a result, are made to feel unworthy.
The teenage Greta Thunbergs of the world are telling their peers, "There is no hope. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We're at the beginning of a mass extinction." So she whines on and on.
------------------------------------------------
THE CHILD BORN TODAY WILL HAVE MORE OPPORTUNITIES AND A SAFER FUTURE THAN ANY OTHER CHILD AT ANY TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY
------------------------------------------------
It is disgraceful that these assertions go unchallenged by adults who call themselves 'leaders'. Young people are privately terrified and wonder where they belong.
The system is broken and badly broken. And only by admitting that, can we seek solution. Stop preaching alarmism and look at the facts rather than the propaganda they are fed.
That learned, the child born today will have more opportunities and a safer future than any other child at any time in human history.
That child in the classroom will be blessed with a longer life expectancy than of any time in human history.
That child is entering a world where poverty, health and freedom are at an infinitely better level than other time in human history.
That child will find the availability of food better than at any time in human history.
We'll be safer from extreme weather. Last year, deaths from extreme weather were the lowest ever recorded.
That child will enjoy more leisure time than any other child in human history, and the greater slice of his or her life is focusing on things like music and the arts due to improved nutrition and living standards.
That child in the classroom is unlikely to ever take up arms in the defense of a nation; never have to climb into a trench or out of one; never have to storm a beach under machine gun fire.
Surely it's time to give these children a diet of positivity and hope, rather than alarmism and despair.
-- Alan Jones, seconded by Gerald Logan MacLennon
Swedish teen, Greta Thunberg, and those who “condone her alarmist nonsense” are tragically destroying young people, according to Australian Commentator Alan Jones.
“We have learned that vulnerable students have fallen through the cracks over coronavirus,” he said.
“We have been told that schools don't have a proper review process to prevent - a frightening term - suicide clusters.
“Young people are constantly comparing themselves to others on social media and suffering mental health problems as a result.”
Mr Jones said there are “two blunt answers” as to how this crisis has “accelerated to this point”.
“The first is an appalling absence of political leadership,” he said.
“But young people are being confronted by uninformed, disinformed, illiterate and often innumerate protest leaders urging young people to march for causes they don’t understand based on arguments that can’t be proven and trading on fear which is destructive.
“Why have leaders in the western world given international exposure to the uninformed and dis-informed utterances of Greta Thunberg?”
Greta Thunberg’s “dishonest, alarmist rubbish” is now seeing its manifestation in massive emotional and psychological instability in young people, according to Mr Jones.
“It is a farce; a sickening farce,” says Alan Jones.
-------------------------------------------------------
The following "Wake Up Call" comes from an anonymous source on Facebook:
To all the school kids going on “strike” for Climate Change.
You are the first generation who has required air-conditioning in every classroom.
You want TV in every room and your classes are all computerized.
You spend all day and night on electronic devices.
More than ever, you don’t walk or ride bikes to school but arrive in caravans of private cars that choke suburban roads, pollute the air and worsen rush hour traffic.
You are the biggest consumers of manufactured goods ever and update perfectly good expensive luxury items to stay trendy.
Your entertainment comes from electric devices.
Furthermore, the people driving your protests are the same people who insist on artificially inflating the population growth through immigration, which increases the need for energy, manufacturing and transport.
The more people we have, the more forest and bush land we clear and more of the environment is destroyed.
How about this…
Tell your teachers to switch off the air-conditioning.
Walk or ride to school.
Switch off your devices and read a book.
Make a sandwich instead of buying manufactured fast food.
No, none of this will happen because you are selfish, badly educated, virtue signalling little turds, inspired by the adults around you who crave a feeling of having a “noble cause” while they indulge themselves in Western luxury and unprecedented quality of life.”
Wake up, grow up and shut up until you are sure of the facts before protesting.
----------------------------------------------------------
Again... Australian Commentator Alan Jones:
Consider this: there are alarming incidents -- and they are increasing -- of suicide and attempted suicide among today's teenagers. Even more are considering it. Many experts are saying this is the tip of the iceberg and these incidents won't go away.
There are so many other factors at work here: social media that can say anything it wants about any other person. Kids live off of this stuff and, as a result, are made to feel unworthy.
The teenage Greta Thunbergs of the world are telling their peers, "There is no hope. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We're at the beginning of a mass extinction." So she whines on and on.
------------------------------------------------
THE CHILD BORN TODAY WILL HAVE MORE OPPORTUNITIES AND A SAFER FUTURE THAN ANY OTHER CHILD AT ANY TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY
------------------------------------------------
It is disgraceful that these assertions go unchallenged by adults who call themselves 'leaders'. Young people are privately terrified and wonder where they belong.
The system is broken and badly broken. And only by admitting that, can we seek solution. Stop preaching alarmism and look at the facts rather than the propaganda they are fed.
That learned, the child born today will have more opportunities and a safer future than any other child at any time in human history.
That child in the classroom will be blessed with a longer life expectancy than of any time in human history.
That child is entering a world where poverty, health and freedom are at an infinitely better level than other time in human history.
That child will find the availability of food better than at any time in human history.
We'll be safer from extreme weather. Last year, deaths from extreme weather were the lowest ever recorded.
That child will enjoy more leisure time than any other child in human history, and the greater slice of his or her life is focusing on things like music and the arts due to improved nutrition and living standards.
That child in the classroom is unlikely to ever take up arms in the defense of a nation; never have to climb into a trench or out of one; never have to storm a beach under machine gun fire.
Surely it's time to give these children a diet of positivity and hope, rather than alarmism and despair.
-- Alan Jones, seconded by Gerald Logan MacLennon
