There is simply not enough evidence that allows me to infer that things are going to get better.
This is unfortunately easy to agree with, especially now as many marginalized groups are fighting the same fights that they were 100 years ago.
16 Matching Annotations
- Nov 2020
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www.whatsoproudlywehail.org www.whatsoproudlywehail.org
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The roots of democracy are fundamentally grounded in mutual respect, personal responsibility, and social accountability.
It's interesting how far it feels like America has strayed from these fundamental values. It makes sense why our democracy is struggling to function effectively.
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And yet 25 percent of all of America’s children live in poverty,
Comparing this to the previous fact that one percent of our nation owns 48% of our nation's wealth really emphasizes just how unnecessary this is. There are a number of things that our country could be doing easily to improve the lives of our nation's children.
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One percent of the population owns 48 percent of the total net financial wealth.
This is something that I've always struggled to wrap my mind around. It has always seemed so blatantly unethical and immoral to me, yet a large portion of our country aggressively opposes any attempt to change this, even though almost all of them fall outside of this one percent.
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- Oct 2020
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www.scientificamerican.com www.scientificamerican.com
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Just as intended, some viewers immediately began speculating that Pelosi was drunk, and the video spread on social media.
What really makes situations like these dangerous is the reality that there would still be people who insisted she was drunk, even if you showed them the real video. They would insist that the real video was actually sped up or something along those lines, just to avoid admitting they believed something that was fake.
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Used by politicians around the world to attack a free press, the term is dangerous.
I agree that this term has become dangerous. I can recall dozens of times that I've heard this phrase thrown out as a way to discredit solid, provable facts. People will simply respond to things that they disagree with by claiming that it's "fake news", rather than looking into the facts that they're being presented with.
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that humans are wired to respond to emotional triggers and share misinformation if it reinforces existing beliefs and prejudices.
I definitely agree that humans have natural emotional reactions that we don't control, but I don't necessarily think that sharing misinformation is something we are wired to do. Sharing information is something we make a conscious choice to do, and I know plenty of people who check the validity of information before sharing it, even if it supports their personal beliefs.
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- Sep 2020
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www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com
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Availability bias makes us think that, say, traveling by plane is more dangerous than traveling by car.
At first, I read this and questioned if it was about control: it feels like we have more control over a car that we're driving ourselves than we have over a plane that we trust to remain thousands of feet in the air until a pilot safely brings it down. But I quickly realized that we have no more control over any other car on the road than we do a plane, making this bias even more interesting to me.
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The gambler’s fallacy makes us absolutely certain that, if a coin has landed heads up five times in a row, it’s more likely to land tails up the sixth time. In fact, the odds are still 50-50.
This bias is interesting to me because I can think of so many situations where I know the odds remain the same, but I still can't help but feel as is there no way the same outcome can happen that many times in a row. There is no real reason to back up that feeling, and I am more than old enough to know that the odds of something don't change just because I feel it's time for them to, but subconsciously I always think that they will.
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Most of them have focused on money. When asked whether they would prefer to have, say, $150 today or $180 in one month, people tend to choose the $150.
Today versus a month from now caused me to think about the options much more than 12 versus 13 months. I think that, if I'm going to wait a year anyway, then there's no way it could benefit me now, so the extra month doesn't seem like a big deal. This difference between today and a month from now seems more significant to me because I have a real list of things that that money could go towards today, making the money seem much more valuable somehow. I would ultimately still wait a month for the extra $30, but I definitely considered it more when I knew what I could be putting it toward.
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Wolf points out that when it comes to reading, what we get out is largely what we put in.
This is something that I've noticed a couple times before. I always find reading much more interesting when I really dive into the text, rather than reading it at surface level. Really dissecting the reading allows me to make personal connections, and I end up gaining a much better understanding of what I'm reading.
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When we read, the eye does not progress steadily along the line of text; it alternates between saccades—little jumps—and brief stops, not unlike the movement of the mouse’s cursor across a screen of hypertext
Reading this paragraph made me suddenly aware of the way my brain wasn't reading smoothly. All I could think about for the rest of the text was how I was reading each line. I don't think I've ever really realized the way my brain jumps around, back and forth along each sentence, since I'm always able to understand what I'm reading just fine.
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he was stunned to see him looking at a book and not saying anything.
That's interesting, I had never even considered that there was a time when silent reading wasn't a thing. It feels so natural that I would have assumed people have always read to themselves,especially if there was no one around.
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- Aug 2020
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www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
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Third in his bestiary are vulcans, who investigate politics with scientific objectivity, respect opposing points of view, and carefully adjust their opinions to the facts, which they seek out diligently. It’s vulcans, presumably, who Brennan hopes will someday rule over us,
I think it's impossible to be really educated in politics without being able to respect, or at least carefully consider, opposing views. Obviously there is a number of instances where a line is drawn and you find yourself unable to respect certain opinions, but I think the ability to consider a view point other than your own is incredibly important. How can you be sure you stance is the "right" one if you refuse to look into the other?
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Empirical research shows that people rarely vote for their narrow self-interest; seniors favor Social Security no more strongly than the young do.
I noticed that this was published in 2016, and I'm interested to know if this would still be considered true in today's political climate. Political beliefs have become much more divided over the last four years and it sometimes feels as though people are becoming increasingly self-serving as a result. I'm curious to know if those who have always been more narrow minded are just becoming more vocal, or if upcoming elections will show an actual increase in this more narrow mindset.
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It would be much safer, Plato thought, to entrust power to carefully educated guardians. To keep their minds pure of distractions—such as family, money, and the inherent pleasures of naughtiness—he proposed housing them in a eugenically supervised free-love compound where they could be taught to fear the touch of gold and prevented from reading any literature in which the characters have speaking parts, which might lead them to forget themselves.
I definitely see how most people can't believe that he suggested this as a serious thought. I struggle to understand how he thought separating those with power from those they have power over would have been safe? How could those with power be able to make ethical and educated decisions if they were housed in a separate compound, unable to witness the consequences of their actions in real-time?
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