The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'Epistemological Ruin.'
When I recently characterized the Woke and Flat Earthers as stupid and delusional, my girlfriend challenged my assessment, suggesting that these people are more lost and socially isolated than delusional. She's probably right. Because our media landscape has become so untrustworthy, any one of us can be excused for getting lost and adopting absurd beliefs at some point or another.
The thing that usually remedies the situation is social feedback. When a person's espoused views differ from observable reality, trusted community members typically set them straight. Unfortunately, neither community nor trust are common in our society right now. In the absence of these things, people misjudge important matters. They place their trust in those who affirm their errors, rather than in those who know better.
Flat Earthers. The Woke. Neocons. Neoliberals. Trumpers. All of these groups have their own mythologies. Their own versions of reality. Flat Earthers say the Earth is flat. The Woke say that the nuclear family is a White supremacist institution. Neocons and Neoliberals both say that war makes the world safer and that society should be less free. Trumpers say Trump is the rightful president.
People who believe this nonsense are everywhere, including in positions of power. Writing them all off as stupid and delusional is reasonable yet impractical. They make up the vast majority of our population. We have to deal with them at every turn.
In the wake of the covid disaster, society is at a critical juncture. We can press forward, deeper into dystopia. Or we can chart a new course. Charting a new course is obviously preferable, but doing so would require everyone to get better at talking with everyone else. One thing we might have to let go of to make this possible is the need to feel like we live in a shared reality.
Our common ground is our shared humanity yet beyond that anything goes. And even this basic common ground is contested. The media establishment does everything in its power to keep us divided while dehumanizing enemies of the prevailing order. The total system treats us as little more than code in a computer program. But we are not code. We're human. And we all have that in common with each other.
The big question is how to build on this. There are laudable efforts underway to bridge partisan divides and get people talking despite their differences, but the scale of these efforts is small, while the problem is enormous. And I have yet to see a solution for deprogramming the masses by countering the falsehoods in their heads with true information.
Even if such a solution existed, it wouldn't reach the large number of people who have become epistemologically ruined by the horrendous media environment. Their basic grasp of knowledge itself is broken and repairing it might be impossible. Perhaps these people are best viewed as religious zealots, devoid of reason when it comes to their beliefs. Is there a way to superficially accommodate their beliefs while keeping them away from the important stuff?
Read my novels:
See my NFTs:
