Thread 16750730

Is pattern recognition evolution in humans one of the reasons why conspiracy theories & extreme political ideologies and something related like say racism runs so harshly rampant in (otherwise) civilized communities nowadays? If I see nothing but impoverished blacks on the news committing crimes or chemtrails in the sky every time I go outside and happen to observe a weather forecast associated with said phenomena and associate the two together, am I really just letting my monke brain's desire to survive and keep living influence my decision making and thoughts based on those facts alone?
>No shit sherlock how do you think Gurg knew not to eat poison berries or run away from the sight of wild man-eating bears
Yes I know but at some point its gotta be counterintuitive right? Even if it sorta makes sense on paper, If it looks,swims & quacks like a duck, yes. But I'm not about to sit here and just call anything that has a bill, lays eggs and swims a duck, it could be a Platypus or whatever other waterfowl fit the bill.
As well as we evolved to recognize patterns and infer surface information based on those initial & repeated observations, there's gotta be like some downside or something right? Am I reading too hard into this?
Am I retarded?

>>16750730 (OP)
>there's gotta be like some downside or something right?
Well yes. And you've just made a thread describing some of them. Lots of things in evolution have down sides. It's just that the upsides outweigh them in terms of survival and reproduction in the environment they happen to be in.

>>16750730 (OP)
>>16750732
Btw, the "chemtrails" thing is easily explainable. The same atmospheric phenomena that causes persistent, broad contrails also cause clouds to foem because they're both made out of the same stuff: water vapor and ice crystals.

>>16750730 (OP)
>say racism
my pattern recognition brain says you're a jew

>>16750730 (OP)
Some conspiracies are okay, so long as they are widely accepted by society and come through approved channels such as reddit or cnn or school, or from your friends repeating things from reddit, cnn, or school. It is also acceptable to believe conspiracies that come through hollywood and the music industry, so long as they have acknowledged the orange man is not good.
You know what we call these conspiracies? Public health. Like wearing to masks to protect those less fortunate than you. Like standing in solidarity with the persons of color and not being broadcasting a judgemental savior complex because you don't understand that fiery and peaceful is literally the definition of justice.

>>16750733
>they're both made out of the same stuff: water vapor and ice crystals
And a pinch of fluoride.

>>16751098
There's probably trace amounts of naturally occurring fluoride in clouds as mineral dust particles in the atmosphere act as nucleation sites for cloud formation. Would stand to reason the same is true of contrails because they're attaching to the same dust particles in the air that clouds are.

>>16750730 (OP)
Quick heuristics and surface level pattern recognition work pretty well in the wild. That's what pretty much every animal relies on. Knowing why something is the way it is, how it works, etc. isn't really a thing outside of humans. As long as you know which mushrooms are poisonous, it doesn't really matter that you don't know why.
At least, it doesn't matter, until it does. Then you go from living in a cave to iphones and mcdonalds in a blink of an eye.

Human life got really complicated, really quickly. We're just not evolved for the kind of life we live currently.

>>16751111
Literally what the man said, Prof. Agreeable.

>>16750730 (OP)
You start out with a loaded question:
>Is pattern recognition evolution in humans one of the reasons why conspiracy theories & extreme political ideologies and something related like say racism runs so harshly rampant in (otherwise) civilized communities nowadays?
You are implying that racism, conspiracy theories and extreme political ideologies are uncivilised, so your question is not neutral and already inhibits your truth finding process since any answer also gets this bias or must reject your question.

First off: A mild ingroup bias, aka mild racism is natural biological kinselectiveness. Further there have been studies that show that stereotypes are generally true and that there are indeed differences in averages of different ethnicities and social groups.

Conspiracy theories: This depends on the specific theory. A conspiracy theory is not by default wrong, as you are insinuiting, but it is just a theory. Saying that all conspiracy theories are by default silly and wrong is itself a dogma that hinders natural learning and indeed recognition of patterns and identifying situations.

Political extremism: If you say something is extreme, then you imply that there is a middle, some moderation and most of the time this middle is conveniently your own political position. Now, the question is: What is the middle/moderate position and why? Naturally not everyone is going to agree on that and they should be allowed to live their own versions of politics independently of others, instead of being forced to go with the mainstream. This creates separation, but also resilience and exploration of what is good politics vs what is bad politics by actual practice and quick feedback loops.

>>16750733
>easily explainable
The conspiracy minded person knows or ought to know that there's another way to describe their experience and worries. Contrails are unnatural. It's relatively hard to breathe on the 401 next to the airport. There might be too much air travel.
Even if it's just frozen CO2, water vapor, partly burned fuel (condensation nuclei) from the exhaust, or the temperature/pressure changes, the chemtrails caricature really is mind control because it makes it harder to discuss and take action against pollution from airplanes, because the highest level of worry has been poisoned.

>>16750730 (OP)
>civilized communities
That's a myth.
You also overlay learned patterns onto everything, expecting your neighbors to be "civilized" despite the fact that you can't point to any specific reason why anyone is that way.

If you lived in a cult with extreme fascist control over your community then you could say that everyone is "civilized", at least from your perspective inside the cult. But in reality? Civilization is a myth.

Stop believing the social contract is unbroken and you'll see the patterns. There are many more NPCs and psychopaths walking around than most people realize.

>>16751766
These types of people just want to make badfeel go away. That's their entire psychology. It's identical to the behavior of people under hypnosis. They're aware that there's something bigger than them and just want to feel safe and free, so they pretend big daddy isn't doing anything wrong.

I consider them to be identical to eternal children, poisoned and mind raped into permanent submission. They can't even begin to comprehend this.

>>16753092
Imagine being Edipo anon, cursed by the sphinx forced to think about fucking your mother and killing your father

Wouldn't you want to think about anything else instead of becoming a greek tragedy?

>>16753093
Can't easily imagine. I never had Oedipal fixations, more like maternal engulfment terror.