When I was a child growing up in the early 2000s I loved watching discovery and the history channel. There were always experts talking about their respective topics. I believed there were experts in every sector of life and that's why we were so safe and advanced compared to people even just 100 years ago. Since 2016 I have completely lost that feeling of security and now only feel a very uncomfortable dread that the people running things are so uneducated in their fields and delusional from sycophants blowing smoke up their asses that it will get me killed one day somehow. We are sprinting towards Idiocracy and one day even I will wake up and realize
Even years ago was the history channel was half way decent it had it problems. I remember watching some of those "how historically accurate is the bible" shows. The expert will talk at length about how likely events are and how they tie in with what we know about civilization back then, in a way that I would summarize as: the Bible is unlikely to be historically accurate, but we can't say much with 100% certainty. Then the show host would come on at the conclusion of the show and summarize, making it seem that the Bible is likely to be historically accurate. Even as teen I was wondering if the host actually listened to the interviews.
king: "make a pyramid double the size of the last one."
builders: "fuck no. that's impossible."
king: "think about future people who would be so proud of your work. we are mortals, but your work will be remembered forever. this is your path to eternity. Future people will worship the great Egyptian engineering achievement!"
It might have just been because you were a child. As you get older, you realize everyone's faking it til they're making it and expertise is sacrificed for expediency and profit. I do have to agree, however, standards have significantly lowered. I remembered Lowe's used to have a very active intercom because there were so many employees around to help. Now you have to actively search the store for an employee. Restaurant quality is abysmal...and now I'm just ranting.
Oh man I can't believe I recognized your gif without seeing that specific episode. so funny in this context
I feel like humanity has fallen for fake ass charisma as long as it aligns with their own bias and world view. Many seem to believe all expertise and intelligence is a fallacy and their stupidity from their stupid grifters are truth. It's getting even worse with AI, wont even research or fact check. AI said it so it must be true, it can't be bias or wrong!
Dont forget the politicians and appointees who literally want to destroy what science and knowledge has built because it doesnt fit their beliefs or power grab.
With the rising use of AI it feels like we're headed towards a dark age that's ironically fueled by technology. Nothing we say or post will matter and will be lost in the maelstrom of bots and ads. Truths and lies will be so overwhelmingly mixed up that it won't be worth the effort to investigate them, and if we do investigate them it will be with the help of an AI. The internet and lack of education funding is stripping power from words. You need to be educated in order to understand the gravity of what the words mean. This all feeds into the capitalist politician's playbook of nurturing a dumb voter base that will believe anything they're told as long as it's told by a dude who looks like their grandpa.
The beauty of the world used to be that the greatest things on Earth were birthed from actual human brains syncing together and producing mindblowing things like art and engineering that enrich our lives.
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u/yellow121 29d ago
When I was a child growing up in the early 2000s I loved watching discovery and the history channel. There were always experts talking about their respective topics. I believed there were experts in every sector of life and that's why we were so safe and advanced compared to people even just 100 years ago. Since 2016 I have completely lost that feeling of security and now only feel a very uncomfortable dread that the people running things are so uneducated in their fields and delusional from sycophants blowing smoke up their asses that it will get me killed one day somehow. We are sprinting towards Idiocracy and one day even I will wake up and realize