I’m going to take an entirely irrelevant example that I came across on Reddit to show just what is wrong with humanity. I trust nobody is going to be surprised in the end. This is a completely throw-away example, but I think it illustrates the point.
People are really, really dumb.
So I came across this on a gaming sub, where someone asked what was a really simple question. He said that as a GM, he wanted to know if he should let the players peek behind the curtain and explain what he’s doing. What tables he’s rolling on, what his mental processes are, etc.
I said that’s dumb. The purpose of the game is to have fun role-playing. Nobody really cares what the GM is doing behind the screen. They just want to have fun and be immersed in the game.
The same thing goes for video games. Do you really care what the programmers went through to make the game? Or is the end product what you’re there to see? I mean, I am a programmer and I don’t care! I’m here for the experience, not the technical nonsense.
So he decides that he’s going to double down on his own stupidity. He just wants it to be true. Where have we ever seen this before? Pretty much everyone has told him the same thing and now, he’s arguing with everyone. It looks just like religious apologetics in action. He wanted a specific answer, he didn’t get it and now, he’s mad.
So I tried to make it easier to understand. No entertainment product, I said, does what he’s trying to do. Movie directors don’t get up on screen and explain how they made the movie. That’s not how movies work. They let their film speak for itself.
If they want to talk about how they make movies, they don’t do it within the movie itself. That applies to everything. Heck, I had a group for many years who would spend hours and hours after the game just talking about stuff. That’s the place to do it if anyone is interested.
Nope, this guy didn’t want to hear it. So I challenged him to produce any movie, ever, that did this. He brought up things like the Doom Patrol TV show, which is a bizarre comedy where they routinely break the fourth wall. That’s not the director doing what he’s trying to do. It’s also not a movie. He said “The Stanley Parable video game!” That’s also not a movie and, again, there was plenty of breaking the fourth wall, but no directors anywhere to be seen. Finally, he goes to movie commentaries which are, once again, not movies. You can’t go into a theater, sit down and see a movie commentary on the screen. Every time, he had to shift to something else because he couldn’t handle the fact that he was wrong.
This is insanely common. This happens in religion constantly, but also in politics and philosophical discussions. They can’t handle the fact that they’re wrong so they uproot the goal posts and go for a jog elsewhere. They are wrong. It’s not a big deal. Admit it, modify your position to take into account the actual facts, and we can have that discussion.
Yet far too many people just won’t do it. They are embarrassed to be wrong so they can’t be wrong so they will double down on their own wrongness and scream into the wind until people accept that they were right all along.
That’s just stupid. It really is.
I haven’t just been wrong in my life. I have been so τελείως λάθος wrong in such vast and specific ways that I felt like the punchline of a cruel joke. Pride is pride not because it hates being wrong, but because it loves being wrong: To hate being wrong is to change your opinion when you are proven wrong; whereas pride, even when proven wrong, decides to go on being wrong. To admit mistakes shows you have the ability to learn, and are growing wiser. People’s theologies are so often blatantly wrong when weighed against reality but no way are they going to admit it. They are probably sometimes thinking: “Hellfire and Brimstone, I’d never accept this ‘evidence’ from another faith.” Everyone is always a little bit wrong but better to be roughly right than precisely, pride fully wrong. Don’t change your mind just because people are offended; change your mind if you’re wrong. “Apologetics” = never having to say your wrong. It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
Pride is fine when it’s well-placed, but far too many people these days are just “proud” because their ego insists that they need to be. And since we’re talking about “pride”, you can see this when it comes to the gay crusaders. I don’t care if you’re gay, just don’t be an asshole, yet these people are so “proud” of who they sleep with that they feel the constant need to announce it to anyone and everyone, over and over and over again. You get filmmakers who don’t just make movies, they are “gay” first and directors second. Then, they expect you to see their movies because if you don’t, you’re a “homophobic bigot!” No, your movies just suck! Then we get to religion where people say “I’m proud to be a Christian!” Cool, but you’re still an idiot. Whatever label you insist on slapping on yourself doesn’t make you a better person. It doesn’t matter what you believe. It only matters what is demonstrably true.
re: You get filmmakers who don’t just make movies, they are “gay” first and directors second. Then, they expect you to see their movies because if you don’t, you’re a “homophobic bigot!”
Absolutely✔💯%.
re: Whatever label you insist on slapping on yourself doesn’t make you a better person.
Absolutely✔💯%.
The most fact-oriented people are those willing to check self-proclaimed “fact-checkers”, the most scientifically-minded people are those willing to question every so-called “scientific consensus,” and the most virtue-driven people are those willing to expose “virtue signallers.”
It can be extremely difficult to discern evil hearts because their intention is to look good, not be good.
That is very true. I don’t trust scientists because they are scientists, I do so only when they are in agreement with the actual evidence that we have. It’s too bad the religious can’t figure that out.
re: only when they are in agreement✔ with the actual evidence✔ that we have. – Absolutely❗