There's this app called cranky uncle and it goes through things like this and then helps to you learn how to identify them. It was developed by a university researchers in Australia with the aim of improving people's ability to recognise misinformation
I did interview with a company in the Twin Towers ~1999. Didn’t take it, wasn’t that interested in continuing to sysadmin. Assuming I’d still have been there a couple years later, that could’ve been the worst day ever.
It helps to remember that the mind is not a truth machine, but a survival machine.
I recommend learning some psychology. The more you know about how the mind works, the easier it is to understand and spot logical fallacies, both in yourself and others.
Edit: also, you should practice those critical thinking skills instead of just keeping them in theory. You could apply them to past situations, for example.
I’m a bit new to self-studying logic (and rhetoric) but I think you should learn about “Formal fallacies” and “Informal fallacies”. Formal fallacies are those that arguments that are systematically false, like all A is B, some C is A, some C is not B, therefore all C is A. But in real arguments you have to convert those organic arguments into these terms (which could be the hardest part), and then you find out if it is a fallacy… I remember there was a way to find out if arguments are valid based on adding stars, I’ll probably send it later… But be warned, an argument can be “valid”, but still have the wrong premises! You can say, All cats are on fire, therefore some things on fire are cats… and the argument would still be valid, but rest on false premises… Informal fallacies, I think, are somewhat out of the scope of formal logic, but they are still considered faulty arguments, like Strawman…
They made private data the „new gold“ which it is today long before social media started exploiting it. Changing their motto /code of conduct „Don’t be evil“ into „Do the right thing“ (for our shareholders) didn’t benefit their reputation either…
I would suggest getting a book called Thinking Fast and Slow, and reading it slowly and deliberately, less than 5-10 pages a day. It not only tells you how to find these kind of fallacies but also why you’re likely to fall for them and how.
I have seen countless arguments in Reddit threads and I couldn’t figure out who was in the right or wrong unless I looked at the upvote counts. Even if the person is uttering a blatant lie, they somehow make it sound in a way that is completely believable to me. If it weren’t for those people that could exactly point out the irrationality behind these arguments, my mind would have been lobotomised long ago.
Upvotes on a comment or thread are absolutely not the way to determine which person is right, and it’s not even the way to determine which point of view is more popular. All those numbers give you is how many upvotes the comment got. In two separate communities, you’ll see completely contradictory statements be most popular because the people who feel a certain way tend to congregate.
If you want to become a more discerning information consumer, you can look up the common logical fallacies and keep them in mind, but nothing beats actually being informed, and forming your own opinion. Now, this is pretty hard because all news media is inherently biased, and so many things happen all the time that it’s hard to keep up.
What I’ve found helpful, is when it comes to things I don’t know about, I read the discussion as “this person says this, and that person says that”, rather than “this person is saying the truth, and that person is lying”. If it’s a subject that matters to me, I’ll have a look at some news, see where the general consensus is, analyze it from my own point of view, and form my opinion like that. If it doesn’t really matter to me, I don’t really do that, and just relay information as “I heard it might be either X or Y, but I don’t know for sure”, “I heard from Z that something or other”.
Edit: Of course, it’s not like I’m some paragon of unbiased information crunching. I have my own biases that I’m aware of, but naturally I think I’m right, so I think they’re not a problem, which is probably a problem. Everything you experience is relative.
Visited Thailand for 2 weeks and left 2 weeks before the phuket tsunami. We were stay on an island that I can’t remember the name of but we would have most likely got wiped out.
Sometimes a strawman gets more upvotes/reception than a well thought out argument. Its difficult to win over people when their minds are made up in the first sentence. It only gets harder if you are doing this irl so your best bet is to gaslight them before they gaslight you. Its the American way.
If you're out and about, I recommend light clothes, something to keep some sun off (EX: a hat or an umbrella or parasol), and a folding fan (even if the air is hot, the breeze is still somewhat nice)
I recommend using your fallacy is as both a handy reference and a shortcut for explaining it to the person committing one of the most common fallacies as well as anyone else reading.
By using that, you’ll be able to spot a lot of bullshit you might otherwise miss and eventually get to the point where you’re able to spot the ones you come across most often without looking it up 🙂
I’m late to this party because I’m on the other side of the planet in a sub-tropical climate. I agree with the commenter from India and want to add:
• if you have a cotton cap / beanie / soft hat, get it out Wet it, wring it out, and put it in your freezer in roughly the right shape for your head. Use whatever is in the freezer to shape it, then let it freeze. Remove from freezer, put it in your head, and thank me for the brief but blessed relief.
• Wear a light cotton long sleeve top. Wet the sleeves and stand or sit in front of a fan or in a breezy spit in the shade. It’s like air conditioning for your skin.
• Wet your head for instant relief. Your wet hair will help keep you cool for longer.
• Plan your day around the heat. If you have to go out, do it as early in the day as you can to avoid the heat. Stay in the shade as much as possible, but somewhere with good air flow
I live in South Vietnam. I stay inside for the hours between 12 and generally 3-4. If I’m outside during those hours, I stay still as much as possible. Always have a drink: lite tea is common here. Avoid direct sun, cover exposed areas of skin when traveling. Evaporative cooling is your friend. You can keep a small spray bottle of water with you. Fans heat up a room if the room isn’t vented, so keep the fan on, but crack the door if you don’t have AC.
I’m originally from a city quite close to Canada, known for harsh winters, and now I live in a place where 40c is common. If the temperature gets too high, or you begin feeling sick/dizzy. Find a place to cool down and hydrate. Heat stroke is no joke.
For some reason, I’ve never really thought about this. I splash my face, my neck, wet my arms and legs, but I always forget the top of my head.
Maybe I unconciously assume my hair provides good shade, but it’s definitely not long and thick enough for that.
plan your day around the heat
This is probably the most important part. It’s quite easy to do that on weekends, but many people have their set in stone hours at work that just aren’t compatible with that kind of weather.
We need to figure out how employers can be more flexible with allowing their employees to work around the heat when possible. It’s normal for construction workers to start earlier and pause during the hottest hours, why not do that in the office too?
Some middle-european countries are starting to consider the siesta model of their southern neighbours, and I think that’s not a bad idea at all.
asklemmy
Active
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.