I have noticed that alot of people think the majority of people are stupid based on the things they read online or maybe even experience in real life but I think that there is better explanation than just assuming people are stupid.
A common example people bring up to show that other people are stupid is mentioning how a lot of people believe in conspiracy theories ( such as Qanon or Flat earth) and point out how they are objectively false therefore the people that believe it are stupid.
However when you examine these beliefs in more depth there is obviously some amount of internal logic that is used to justify these beliefs to themselves and others in the group.
You can go to flat earthers forum and they can give huge amounts of "evidence" about how light shouldn't be visible after 50 kms if the earth was round or how in Qanon there are probably people who have whole boards detailed with connections between how and where democrats participate in satanic rituals but my point is that all conspiracy theories tend to form one cohesive narrative like a collective story that are building.
To be able to make a story that is this detailed it definitely required some amount of forethought and reasoning to make it so everyone in the group reaches the same collective understanding.
This then might lead you to ask why are people susceptible to these ideas and what makes them stick. Well I think that it boils down to three different things.
- Our collective feeling that things aren't going well
- Our general distrust in current authorities
- Our collective belief that an authority is good/necessary
When you look at how people tend to be influenced into accepting these beliefs it also follows this same general pattern.
- People feel that some part of their life isn't going well and that current institutions aren't helping them anymore.
- A guru/influencer shows up and offers advice (sometimes good advice) to fix their problem
- People then start trusting these gurus/influencers and seeing them as authorities
- Finally these people take what these gurus/influencers say at face value and build internal lore for their community that makes sense to them given that they accept what the new authority says as fact.
If you want to tackle the root of what makes people susceptible to these ideas you have to tackle those three things or else people will fall into those same traps just with different authorities saying different things.
Also as a semi-related point there are a million and one things that an individual can choose to focus on and become knowledgable about so whilst some people spend that mental capacity on understanding tech or politics others spend that mental capacity on flat earth theory or UFOs.
Main point:
So all of this is to say I think that people aren't stupid and that we should not treat them as they are such instead if we understand that they are capable of complex reason but they are starting with different base knowledge it'll be easier to empathize with others. Also if we want society to be less susceptible to this we need to fix one or all of the three things I mentioned that makes us susceptible.
I generally agree with the sentiment, but it’s not going to stop my gut reactions when people start talking things that I find ridiculous. Yes there’s a thought process there with some kind of logic and reasoning.. but if you think the earth is flat, your logic and reasoning isn’t very good. Which is just a nicer way of saying someone is stupid lol. I don’t think the majority of people are stupid at all, I look at it like a bell curve and therefore the bulk of us are pretty average intelligence.
To your point though and along the same lines, I like to keep this in mind- a hunter/gatherer living 10,000 years ago has never seen a cell phone, has limited communication skills, math skills, no real concept of how big the earth is or that the sun is a star, by most measurable standards they probably peaked at the intelligence that a child has today. Don’t quote me, this is all just generalizations. But they lived every single day of their lives thinking and self aware, problem solving and innovating. What sort of knowledge about their world did they have that has been lost along the way? One thing we do know- they knew how to live in harmony with the planet, even if it was the only option. Even if we think we know, essentially none of are are willing to give up the conveniences that make our modern lifestyles possible, so knowing is irrelevant anyway. What else might they have known that we intellectually superior beings today are clueless about?
What does the person living on the street for 10 years know about the world that the stock portfolio manager doesn’t? Something, I’m sure, even if you and I might find it useless.