Noting that "to be an anti-vaxxer, one must be simultaneously credulous and distrustful—credulous of hucksters, and distrustful about empiricism," Adam Serwer coins the term "gullicist" to describe many Americans of the post-Covid Trump era — entirely skeptical of science, documentation, research, entirely gullible when it comes to hucksters and charlatans peddling nonsense.
#gullibility #credulity #vaccines #research #science #ConspiracyTheories #gullicism
/1
"The coronavirus wasn’t the only epidemic to hit the United States in the past decade. Americans are also facing a bizarre epidemic of gullibility and cynicism—gullicism, if you need a portmanteau—that is drawing people into a world of conspiracism and falsehoods, one where facts are drowned out by a cacophony of extremely loud and wrong voices."
#gullibility #credulity #vaccines #research #science #ConspiracyTheories #gullicism #SocialMedia #disinformation #Covid
/2
"Reliable information is both more available and harder to find than ever—and those who spread misinformation have been rewarded with positions of power, platforms they can exploit to further pollute the information environment. ...
The spread of anti-vax conspiracy theories is just another example of the gullicism that defines our age."
#gullibility #credulity #vaccines #research #science #ConspiracyTheories #gullicism #SocialMedia #disinformation #Covid #authoritarianism
/3
"The cynicism is highly selective: Gullicists see everyone’s hidden motives—except when they don’t. They are able to reject any claim rooted in actual evidence—whether in science, politics, or history—while embracing the most breathtakingly absurd assertions on the same topics."
#gullibility #credulity #vaccines #research #science #ConspiracyTheories #gullicism #SocialMedia #disinformation #Covid #authoritarianism
/4
"Indeed, documentation is often taken as further evidence of conspiracy, while assertion (that this or that will 'detoxify' your blood or that COVID deaths were exaggerated) is taken as gospel….
Hannah Arendt wrote in The Origins of Totalitarianism that 'a mixture of gullibility and cynicism is prevalent in all ranks of totalitarian movements.'”
#gullibility #credulity #vaccines #research #science #ConspiracyTheories #gullicism #SocialMedia #disinformation #Covid #authoritarianism
/5
Science communication has placed a lot of emphasis on telling stories with compelling narratives that move people emotionally. And I get why. But somewhere we need to develop capacity to absorb information through less emotional channels. And to constructively manage difficult emotions that arise when doing so.
Dan Olson's video on flat Earthers is quite illuminating on this emotional angle.
Related, I am under the impression that for most people who join a religious group (and probably in some way for many who grow up in a given faith), the decision to take on "I believe in [x]" as part of one's identity is much more about being part of a group with friends than about identifying a theology that makes any sense to the person.
@AlexanderVI @wdlindsy Re 2nd paragraph: yes, exactly -- that's why I think we need to offer a rational alternative.
(Nuance: some religions, even some branches of Christianity, aren't at all problematic in this way -- but I don't know of any that actively promote critical thinking.)
William Lindsey 
Woozle Hypertwin
J Miller
AlexanderVI