this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
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Environment
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Why is the blame placed solely on wealthy individuals? While they do bear a share of the responsibility, it's also important to consider the role of everyday citizens. The choices made by voters, such as supporting climate change deniers or prioritizing short-term economic growth over long-term environmental sustainability, play a greater role in shaping policies. It's unreasonable to blame the system when the existing checks and balances refuse to act.
Because the wealthy have completely corrupted the checks and balances, control the media networks and manipulate the voting populace through propaganda?
Yes, but if you as an individual allow yourself to be misled and manipulated, is it entirely the manipulator's fault? They should not lie to you of course, but the failure to question a new piece of information before you let it influence your opinions and view of the world is entirely on you.
The most logical conclusion is that we as a species have failed. A better society than the one we've built would not tolerate this kind of manipulation. Corrupt politicians are a symptom, not the cause.
I'm not at all what you'd call a religious person, but consider the Nine Satanic Sins: the worst sin you can commit is that of stupidity. Imagine a world where everybody lived by this!
Yeah, it's the manipulators fault. Ideally we would all have time and energy to consider every input on our lives for spin and slant, but most of us don't. And even if most people didn't have to work two jobs to own a car and have a home, it's still the manipulators fault for using their status for personal gain at the expense of others.
I do agree that a society built better would not encourage the manipulations we see today, but we haven't failed because people are dumb. Perhaps we are struggling because our current society was built by bigoted white men who wanted to expand control, power, and wealth. Maybe we could do better by allowing for time to mingle with our neighbors and learn from one another.
Nobody is stupid for being manipulated. That line of thinking only encourages people to double down when they realize they are wrong, to avoid being seen as stupid.
I think that's a big part of the problem. Nobody is 100% right all of the time. There's no self-improvement without the ability to say "okay, this is how I could have done X better, I'll try this next time."
The opposite of "dumb" is not "all-knowing". It's the desire and ability to gain new knowledge, and to apply that knowledge to known and new situations.
Taking everything you hear or read at face value and shifting the blame for the consequences on those who've provided you with wrong information effectively means you expect the world to treat you like a helpless idiot unable to think for yourself. That can't possibly be what you're aiming for.
Taking it one step further, would you be to blame if you passed a piece of misinformation on to your buddy or family, you yourself believing it to be correct? You couldn't be to blame, because fact-checking was the job of whomever gave it to you. Only they've got it from somebody else, ... where will the blame game end? Would you introduce a two-class society divided into people whose job it is to check their facts, and those who are to take everything at face value?
It's also impossible to gain new knowledge without questioning what's currently believed to be correct information. Only a few decades ago, it was common 'knowledge' that a good husband needs to show his wife where her place is once in a while. Go back a bit further and people 'knew' how to recognise a witch by her birthmarks. A bit further back Ignaz Semmelweis was committed to the madhouse because he tried to establish a rule that doctors should wash their hands and instruments between an autopsy and a surgery.
The powerful people of that time didn't mislead you. They gave you what they believed was correct information.
The only thing that works in the long term is when personal responsibility is both possible and expected from every person. And that's what many people fear.