when something big happens, for example covid, and you have information sources calling it a "hoax," while other sources are reporting on the daily mounting death toll, and also people you know are dying, AND you choose to side with the sources calling the whole thing "fake news" despite evidence you see with your own eyes, then the problem isn't that you don't have access to good information, the problem is that you're a cultist, and believe what you're told to believe, instead of believing that reality is real

climate change is another in-your-face example

as an aside, one of the first things our shiny new fascist government did upon taking over was to cripple research having to do with covid and climate change. now, why would they do that? because if there's no evidence, then there's no crime. this is that critical thinking piece they're so aggressively removing from the curriculum. and obviously succeeding

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 4 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I encountered two lovely morsels of human behavior today.

One, a coworker was being strongly discouraged by their spouse to not get a flu shot, because “potential vaccine damage”.

Two, an individual who was asked about the receipt of blood products didn’t want to receive blood products tainted by the covid vaccine. (There is no recorded difference, no way to distinguish.). Another individual was refusing all blood products, while in a potential bleed out state, for the same reason. The first one ultimately changed their mind saying they’d rather live if it was needed but the latter stood firm.

The point being, misinformation can stick, right up the point of staring death in the face.

Even the Tylenol thing. People have refused it because they “heard something” about it being bad for them.

People follow their own threads. Even when they lead here.

[–] Z745812939054@lemmy.zip 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

because they “heard something” about it being bad for them.

it's true, misinformation can stick. my point stands--the ability to discern credible, reliable, plausible, realistic, etc. information from bullshit is a skill (again, critical thinking), and it's being deliberately hobbled by people who don't want you to pay attention to what's actually happening, but what they want you to believe is happening instead.

"people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."

https://phdn.org/archives/www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/documents/osssection3pt1.htm

at what point would you say that individuals are responsible for the decisions they make, based on information/misinformation, when both categories abound?

to my mind, if someone still voted for trump because they believed a single goddamn word out of this mouth after the first bullshit term, then that's 100% on them

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 1 points 17 minutes ago

Sure, but is the equipment to do so present? The training? Education is key, but, sadly, not everyone can be taught.

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 0 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I refuse Tylenol because it does nothing for pain and just makes me feel vaguely nauseous. It's worse than nothing, in my experience. So no.

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 1 points 20 minutes ago

Nah, this is stated as “I heard something” or “didn’t they find out it hurts babies?” Specific to maga misinformation.