And any truely strange opinion or perspective can only be wrong, bad, insane and toxic.

And we react to that strangeness like an ant reacts to the scent of an ant from a different anthill.

  • DomeGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    6 days ago

    Asserting that the vast majority of people don’t think is about as bold a statement of bigotry as you can make.

    Most thoughts are boring, trite, and unoriginal. A small minority of us have the training, resources, and reputation to translate their thoughts into textbooks and policies and institutes, but the thoughts they have aren’t in general any higher quality than the rest of the species.

    I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

    https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould

    • okwhateverdude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      Asserting that the vast majority of people don’t think is about as bold a statement of bigotry as you can make.

      And yet, I can point to a number of democracies that directly voted against their best interest and are now suffering the consequences of those actions. Note, this isn’t an argument against democracy, but merely presented evidence for the absence of thinking and the all encompassing reality that racism, bigotry, and other intolerances act as short cuts for thinking that these people use. They aren’t any less of a person, but they definitely shouldn’t be voting without thorough consideration of the consequences (ie. thinking).

      Most thoughts are boring, trite, and unoriginal. A small minority of us have the training, resources, and reputation to translate their thoughts into textbooks and policies and institutes, but the thoughts they have aren’t in general any higher quality than the rest of the species.

      You’re not wrong about the first bit, and are supporting my argument with the second bit. And I freely admit that I am not bestowing the benefit of the doubt that Mr. Gould did. And really, if we had more thinking in our society, maybe those of equal talent to Mr. E=MC2 would actually get the opportunity to dazzle humanity instead of obscurely slave laboring.