What’s a thought pattern that’s way too common and damaging to society?
When people assume anything they don’t personally understand is bullshit
They don’t know how the spread of viruses works, so they conclude it’s a conspiracy. Not only do they conclude this, they refuse to change the conclusion when presented with new information. You explain as simply as possible why pandemic precautions are taken and they just won’t accept new information.
They don’t understand how a person can be a gender different from what their genitals imply and so they assume such people are simply delusional. Look, I understand how one hearing about it for the first time might think that but even when new information about the topic is given to them, they just refuse to accept it. They can’t get past “man penis woman vagina” no matter how much information is given, they assume if they didn’t know it before it must be bullshit
I guess part of the reason they think this way is a need to defend their original position even if it’s refuted with new information. To them, the goal of conversation and debate isn’t to learn, it’s to win. No matter what new information is given, they still need to come up with a way their original position is still correct. They see it a personal failure to have ever been wrong, not realizing it’s a bigger personal failure to remain wrong when they have been informed and now know better
This rant got off my original point a bit. Sorry for the ramble. I guess what I’ve really identified is a bunch of interconnected unhealthy thought patterns
Feminism
Anti-intellectualism
Making fun of people for reading or learning or knowing “too much” about a thing
As an autistic person, I kind of get self-conscious when people point out that I know a lot about a subject. Even when they mean it as a compliment it still kind of bothers me and I’m not sure why. For me, the amount I know about most topics doesn’t feel impressive to me at all. People around me think I have encyclopediac knowledge of movies when I actually know very little about it compared to how much there is to know, I just know more about it than most of the people around me and am better at remembering facts than most people around me
i don’t see anyone making fun of it, but i do seem people characterizing intellectuals as either disconnected and stuck up; or depressed and childless; or godless and doomed to hell for it and all of it is done with the vaguely hidden intention of warning everyone else against intellectual pursuits or else they’ll end up like disconnected, depressed, and/or godless.
Believing that poverty is a moral failure. Though that’s been an issue for millenia.
It’s really frustrating that so many people assume poor people are lazy and don’t want to work when a lot of poor people are working multiple jobs and that’s still not enough to “earn” the right to have their basic needs met
I guess it is more a thing of Western countries. Max Weber suggested that the Protestant Reformation, led to the belief that economic success was a sign of divine favor, legitimizing wealth inequality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism
In the case of the Soviet Union, Marxist-Leninist doctrine treated poverty as a product of class exploitation under capitalism rather than personal failure. Official discourse emphasized that unemployment, homelessness, and destitution were systemic features of bourgeois economies. Within Soviet society, this translated into a strong normative expectation that the state bore responsibility for guaranteeing employment, housing, and basic welfare. While in practice shortages and inequalities persisted, the cultural script did not legitimize blaming the poor; instead, marginalization was often interpreted as a failure of planning, bureaucracy, or remnants of pre-socialist class structures.
A comparable ideological orientation can be found in the People’s Republic of China, particularly during the Maoist period. Under Mao Zedong, poverty was framed as the legacy of feudalism and imperialism. Campaigns such as land reform and collectivization were justified precisely on the premise that peasants were victims of structural oppression rather than agents of their own deprivation. Even in the post-1978 reform era, although market mechanisms reintroduced inequality, official rhetoric continues to stress “poverty alleviation” as a state-led responsibility, culminating in large-scale programs aimed at eradicating extreme poverty without moralizing the poor as individually culpable.
I don’t owe you anything.
Well, that’s the social contract that define’s society. It’s literally damaging to society.
Anyone I’ve heard say this IRL is usually mid act of going out of their way to antagonize everyone around them for absolutely no reason.
on the flipside, ime this can look like drawing necessary boundaries too.
Incuriousity
I will never understand people who think they already know everything they need to know.
Thing is, sometimes it takes more effort to know something than you have the energy to put.
One thing I noticed in India, and perhaps elsewhere too that happiness is on the other side of whatever goal one has, usually something that is sold as hustle or hardwork. I am not talking about people who don’t earn enough to afford even basics and are told that they don’t earn enough because they don’t work hard enough. These people are simply playing a rigged game.
I am talking about usually well-off people who earn enough, but not enough to be happy. These people don’t realize that in their case happiness is just due to an internal lack and not due to external factors. These people try to buy and consume in order to fill a void that cannot be filled through external stuff or status.
That efficiency is an absolute good.
Probably not the worst, but my personal worst that comes to mind is manosphere bullshit that spreads like wildfire among men who aren’t happy with their life. I can sadly even see it with some friends, they don’t fully buy into it but most men are vulnerable to it because it’s an easy “solution”.
that having awareness of misogyny is actually misandry
Words can cause harm, but can’t change minds.
Way too many young people (in the west, I’m not sure about elsewhere) are extremely pessimistic about the future. They aren’t necessarily wrong they also feel like they don’t have any control. It definitely opens a window for radicalisation, but it’s just sad to see.
People have warped views about where is worthy of living. In the US people are all about big coastal/hip cities. Like Portland and Austin aren’t coastal but they’re still hip. That wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t trash on non-coastal cities. I don’t know how these people think to build some sort of working class solidarity when you shit on the homes of the majority of peoples who may not want to live in a dense city environment
Similar to that is weird exoticism of people in other countries and their lifestyles. Like I’ve known people that have moved from the US to Ecuador to escape growing fascism and I’m puzzled that they must have done zero research into this. Same with moving from the US to France because they’re anti-imperialist and I’m just puzzled. France has been continuously imperialist for centuries. No pause.
Then the ones that self-style as a refugee when moving to a poorer country. You’re moving from a wealthy country with your savings and many of your belongings, often keeping your job but working remote, often keeping your citizenship. These people have more in common with European colonists in America than someone escaping war in southeast asia 50 years ago or like Sudanese refugees today. These people are also very awkward to talk to these actual refugees and their children especially when they’re living wherever they can in a country to make it rather than like Seattle
All that really to say about how little interest people want to be a part of uplifting their home communities. Their countries communities. I don’t care how little you care for Oklahoma because of politics, you should want people to thrive there. Especially if you fancy yourself some social progressive that cares about native Americans
And this warped view ends up having people spend so much money on things that aren’t needed to make them happy. Maybe you see way funnier stuff at improv shows in New York City. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time at one in Omaha Nebraska. You can help grow that. Too many people that just want to move to a city and consume and get pissed off that the cities with built out amenities are expensive. So then move to a cheap country and continue to contribute nothing. Just consume. So move to Ecuador to be rich and contribute nothing culturally nor politically to prevent some fascistic rise they “fled” growing in the US or France or UK, etc
I view it like a supercharged American moderate that MLK Jr spoke about that people love to cite. The American moderate shares that video to claim they’re not a moderate. People in wealthy countries find any reason to not have to be a part of change and hope they can move to their ideal community that will entertain them. And in the case of moving to a poorer country, their ideal home wasn’t actually leftism and setting up their communities to thrive in the future - it was being rich. It’s a lot worse today I believe because of social media. A lot of people consume enough self help books and socializing tips YouTube along with lifestyle influencers and now we have an impotent leftist movement. Approach to lifestyle like a wealthy conservative but wrap it in messaging of wellness, socialism, whatever
In America being inconvenient by something is the greatest sin. It’s horseshit.
I’d been noticing lately how IG e.g. (or whatever, echo chamber/filter bubble) was feeding me a lot of man-child hate, and at some point felt it was getting to me a bit too much. Made me intolerant towards strangers and less likely to give someone at least a chance, which is how I normally am. And I know incel culture quite well too, so it seems like a really toxic, alienating combo. Not because we are supposed to just get married and breed and shut up for the greater GDP, but just for basic human trust and empathy.
