I AM AFRAID.

I have a bad habit of browsing articles on yahoo - and before you say it - I'm well aware of the "quality" issues.

But seeing the commentary left by people I have to wonder how so many of them were able to graduate from high school.

The article talks about a fil-am teen who was killed in the recent shooting.

People left comments about race-baiting. My God not only are Americans self-centered, but when the hell did they lose the concept of context? The article was a story in a Filipino publication, so logically one should deduce why there was focus brought to her ethnicity at all.

One girl thought fil-am was a made up word/concept and she claimed to be half. Despite the power of google now, her gut reaction to something unfamiliar is not look it up and verify but outright deny something exists simply because it was something unfamiliar -- like people discounting science or people who believe that everything that comes across their news feeds are true and accurate.

Some people wondered what an 18 year old was doing at a bar... sure feel free to randomly comment to the masses but fail to comprehend the location was a Borderline Bar and Grill -- otherwise known as a restaurant.

Thankfully, at least some people were able to notice context and other basic concepts -- but based on upvotes, logical thought was clearly the minority.


Why does this suddenly make me fearful, especially given the political climate as its been?

A tragic story about the loss of life, and SO FEW CARED. Content and context be damned, most people only cared about offering their opinion giving no thought to the young life ended too soon.

And this isn't the first time this year even.

We've been seeing the ugly side of social media for a while now, but at some point we have to take ownership. You can blame the companies all you want, but they are not the original source.

Ideas and opinions are creations of man, not the machine.

Maybe watch the first episode of the first southpark season - you might see something familiar there.

You seem like you don't have a realistic picture of what humans are like. There's a LOT of ugly sides to any person, no matter how good they seem to be.

"

Anonymous1749704 wrote:

You seem like you don't have a realistic picture of what humans are like. There's a LOT of ugly sides to any person, no matter how good they seem to be.

Yup. This maybe one of the filters of the Fermi Paradox. No self-respecting highly advance and intelligent ET civilization would want to make contact with us because of the nature of humanity - it's ugly as f*k.

I am inclined to believe that there were already highly advance human civilizations of the past, but got a reset since it didn't meet the required level of emotional capacity and intelligence for it to be able to co-exist with other ET beings. Looking at our present when still a bunch of us are morons and racist as shit, we are in for another goddamn reset.

Snowflake society pulling the trigger on any issue perceived to be culturally insensitive in the slightest. Set upon by rabid internet attack dogs. You ever hear the one about th...

"

Im2sl0w wrote:

Maybe watch the first episode of the first southpark season - you might see something familiar there.

You reminded me of the rage that used to surround that show, and of course all those people who found said show disgusting and unforgivable weren't willing to see that it was a satirical look at ourselves.

But of course, that was before social media and just like people buying NWA albums to burn them in protest, it faded away.

This mindset, this style of thinking is no longer fading away.

"

Anonymous1749704 wrote:

You seem like you don't have a realistic picture of what humans are like. There's a LOT of ugly sides to any person, no matter how good they seem to be.

Anyone can look at the negative sides of a species, just like when Q put the crew of the Enterprise on trial for the crimes of humanity.

What scares me is that the level of stupidity continues to grow exponentially and that grasping the truth shouldn't be this rare. Years ago, this was the behavior of the outliers with the majority possessing the BASIC skills to sort through fake and fantasy.

Now it feels like the regular person is grabbing the National Enquirer and fully believing that even the most outlandish claim is true yet denouncing anything that doesn't align with their values.

"

element274 wrote:

Yup. This maybe one of the filters of the Fermi Paradox. No self-respecting highly advance and intelligent ET civilization would want to make contact with us because of the nature of humanity - it's ugly as f*k.

I am inclined to believe that there were already highly advance human civilizations of the past, but got a reset since it didn't meet the required level of emotional capacity and intelligence for it to be able to co-exist with other ET beings. Looking at our present when still a bunch of us are morons and racist as shit, we are in for another goddamn reset.

I liken it more to that they have actually visited, but those visits have simply proven that as a species not only do we have nothing to offer, but learning we aren't alone officially might send the world in further downward spiral.

Some of the people asked why was a shooting death news, and their logic was a libtard death or relation to a celebrity. It's pretty disgusting when people care more about political rhetoric over the loss of innocent life.

Was it just a mutual hatred for Saddam and Osama that kept us "civil"? Are we doomed to fight amongst ourselves without a common enemy?

And more poignantly is our ego so big that we feel we can annoy every other country in the world and assume they'll take it cuz we're Murica!

I have no doubt there have always been people that thought this way. But I'm also old enough to remember a government that got stuff done.

I remember a government that didn't proclaim immigrants were all criminals.

I remember when political affiliation hardly mattered because it simply didn't come up.

I remember when people were skeptical and didn't blindly absorb news from any source.

If you aren't the least bit afraid to see this level of gullibility become so common place......

"

SeCKSEgai wrote:

"

Anonymous1749704 wrote:

You seem like you don't have a realistic picture of what humans are like. There's a LOT of ugly sides to any person, no matter how good they seem to be.

Anyone can look at the negative sides of a species, just like when Q put the crew of the Enterprise on trial for the crimes of humanity.

What scares me is that the level of stupidity continues to grow exponentially and that grasping the truth shouldn't be this rare. Years ago, this was the behavior of the outliers with the majority possessing the BASIC skills to sort through fake and fantasy.

Now it feels like the regular person is grabbing the National Enquirer and fully believing that even the most outlandish claim is true yet denouncing anything that doesn't align with their values.

Years ago, internet wasn't connecting us all. It's not that the world become dumber, it's that the stupidity which has existed all a long time is now exposed to everyone. Rewind 200, 300 years back and give that age access to internet; you'll see how people of the "good 'ol days" weren't that much smarter than us after all.

You didn't know some of the negative sides that existed. Now you do.

"

Anonymous1749704 wrote:

Years ago, internet wasn't connecting us all. It's not that the world become dumber, it's that the stupidity which has existed all a long time is now exposed to everyone. Rewind 200, 300 years back and give that age access to internet; you'll see how people of the "good 'ol days" weren't that much smarter than us after all.

You didn't know some of the negative sides that existed. Now you do.

Right start, wrong finish. It’s a problem of unfettered access to nigh infinite information not upheld by conventional standards for review.

SeCKSEgai got it right. The existence of the internet has reduced the quality of information available to that of the National Enquirer.

been on the net for almost 18 years, illiteracy was always a thing.
If anything the worst is that the average idiot is extremely common now and will call for censorship everywhere cause they never left their nice neighborhood or never talked to anyone besides their church group and noticing different kinds of people scares them.

Yeah, different people with different opinions exist, some of those opinions are horrible, wow oh my god so scary someone save me AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

[Removed by Support]