JA WestenbergNot one single "free thinker" who told me to "question everything" in 2020 has questioned a single thing since 2024. Turns out questioning everything meant questioning the specific things that made you feel smart at parties.
Alda Vigdís@Daojoan It's because they stopped being invited.
Michel PatriceIt is funny how these free thinkers all start thinking the same thing at the same time.
6L6GC@Daojoan actually questioning everything also requires you to question yourself, your own beliefs, and your own positions. Few will do this.
Carlos Solís@debiani386 @Daojoan Question deep enough, and you eventually land on either nihilism or absurdism. Any other position requires willingly stopping at some point and taking a position as self-evident.
ᴮᵉⁿ ᴿᵒʸᶜᵉVOTE IN THE PRIMARIESafter you realize life has no meaning, you then realize you can fill it with any meaning you want it to have. then life has meaning. there's no cosmic philosophical law you are breaking by doing that
nihilism is a temporary teenager thing. it's quite natural, common, normal
anyone who gets stuck in it though, that's a whole other enchilada
Log 🪵@csolisr @Daojoan @debiani386 When you know life has no meaning, and you go on about it anyway, some people see that as a threat, because it repudiates one or more of their foundational assumptions.
And the smartest thing to do at a party is make friends with the dog.
@log @csolisr @Daojoan @debiani386
and going for a walk
@csolisr @Daojoan @debiani386 If anyone needs a meaning and hasn't got enough philosophy juice to work out their own, there's always building a fungus god that spans the entire observable universe, who gives out free food, water, drugs, and communications networks to anyone, whether they believe in the power of Juffo-Wup or not. It's easy to start. Just grow some mushrooms at home. And annihilate any human who appears to be trying to cause Kessler Syndrome around Earth,.
CyIsn't that the plot of Star Trek: Discovery?
CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
Well of course it repudiates a foundational assumption: the expectation of rational allocation of resources. Doing things knowing full well that their end result is going to disappear, instead of not doing things to avoid the waste of energy for the exact same end result, is the definition of absurd - hence why that branch of nihilism is best known as absurdism. (Or by some recalcitrants, as "copium".)
Paul Cantrell@csolisr @dalias @debiani386 @Daojoan
Sartre’s “Myth of Sisyphus” answered this line of thought very much to my taste.
Sartre’s “Myth of Sisyphus” answered this line of thought very much to my taste.
Confused Middle Aged Dad@debiani386 @Daojoan not a trivial undertaking then. May also require mentoring and plenty of time. I also think that "free thinker" ought to be a retrospective (probably posthumous) label applied by others
*questioning the specific things that right wing nutjob media instructs them to, which they obediently submit their entire conscious existence to, in line with them being "free thinkers" with an "open mind"
skua@Daojoan
They've been oh so busy doing their own research into the Epstein Files, organizing militia actions against government tyranny and protesting against Trump's restrictions on his opponents' Free Speech that public "questioning" has had to take a back seat to their facilitating the progress of fascism.
'Twas always just a device, a ploy to distract, confuse and excuse.
#HanahArendt #JoeRogan
neoluddite@Daojoan Yep, and their LLM use is only making them and their reactions worse. They're training themselves to see obsequiousness as the default and any other reaction (ie. polite disagreement) as objectionably rude. https://aus.social/@neoluddite/113880131073722327
Duncan Bayne@neoluddite @Daojoan See e.g. the "I love science" folks reacting to research that suggests marijuana use in adolescents increases the chances of certain mental illnesses. All of a sudden it's about the feels, because it's contrary to their worldview.
@duncan_bayne The jury's still very much out on cause and effect there. Lots of kids self-medicate pre-existing conditions, particularly where their parents can't afford mental health care.
In any case, *in-person school* increases the chances of mental illnesses in adolescents, but that's apparently essential to their development and they just have to suffer.
Toni Aittoniemi@Daojoan I think it’s called ”role playing” if I remember correctly. 🤔
Octavia Con Amore 
Succubard's Library
Luci Bitchface Angerfoot@OctaviaConAmore @Daojoan i mean, critical thinking is good and all but i kinda think if you’re walking around saying “question everything” i think you probably listened to one podcast and the questions you’re asking are exactly the list of questions in the podcast and not a single question more
Oblomov
2qx 🔻The disinformation campaign transcended ownership of twitter, it spread to other platforms, it became official policy. They bought new social media platforms and old media empires.
And doctors still denied the existence of the virus we created The Vaccine for.
Not one single public health professional raised their voice to say: 'I think we might have a small problem.'
DoomBananas 🇳🇴@Daojoan new tactic: shut up and hope this passes soon