A List I'm Sure You Can Add To

[pompe]

In part as a result of an earlier discussion on this LJ, angry_geologist have started to create a list of markers/indicators the person you communicate with is, let's say "unorthodox in the sanity department". You know, rants about Eurabia, how bar codes are predicted in The Book of Revelation, and how the 13th century never existed.

The list is here.

Comments

[heron61]

Definitely easy to add to. Thanks for the link.

[fledgist]

Thanks for the link. I added Holocaust denial to it.

[mmcirvin]

A few of these are mainstream enough in an American context that they are not an indication of individual insanity, but an indication that an otherwise sane person has spent a lot of time surrounded by people who are all parroting the same bad information. I'd include most of the basically racist ones in that category.

[pompe]

I'm not so sure about that. In the end, we're certainly products of our time and social group, but people today have a choice. There is media, there is school, there's the web. I mean, we can't free the Holocaust Deniers because they've been hanging out with the wrong people. Ignorance is not a defense.

[mindstalk]

It's not that simple. School may suck, or be private or homeschooled. Media and web don't do anything by themselves; you'd have to seek out or stumble upon the right areas, then believe what you read over how you were raised.

I should make my own list of things bright people haven't known that I thought they should have.

[pompe]

Yeah, I forget I come from a society where homeschooling is a no-no and private schools follow central curricula or they won't get any student money.

[mmcirvin]

...What I think of more often are Helpful Stupidity/Ignorance Indicators. For instance, as I've mentioned before, if people are talking about environmental issues, you can safely ignore the viewpoint of anyone who (1) thinks that the ozone hole is a hoax or (2) thinks global warming and the ozone hole are the same thing, and if they manage to combine (1) and (2) you're talking to a very special person who probably writes for the National Review.

[fledgist]

Just to note that William F. Buckley died this morning.