Every generation has some product/ingredient that they didn’t know was dangerous at the time: tobacco, lead, asbestos, etc. What is that item for this generation?
Marketing. We put a person on the moon because we were scared of the space race, and then we spent the next 50 years figuring out how to make rich people richer by manipulating human behavior and gamifying everything so you buy into the buy more stuff you don't need and click more stuff you don't care about. We've gotten so good at it, we only need a 10 second short to advertise stuff to you.
This affects everything we do down to its core and will likely be the cause of astronomical ADHD rates in the future.
you're grasping at something deeper here. humans have an underlying tendency to be gullible and easily manipulateable. we need to pour funds and funds into the education system and move more focus onto critical thinking, logical fallacies and self-esteem / self-image, as it plays a large role in calling out injustices and building an accurate world view
imo its the no. 1 reason the world is so fucked. we believe evrything we're told because it appeals to a sense of self-empowerment (our tribe over theirs). hunter gatherer tribes would sometimes literally slaughter each other to survive. it is in our instincts to be able to be convinced that other groups of people are our enemies, when really everyone thinking the exact opposite would be heaven on earth, except for the ultra greedy
So true. The only way that the human race is to survive and prosper into the far future is for us to move to a mindset of the whole world's population being one big tribe, as far as I am concerned. We will eventually destroy ourselves if we keep with the 'us vs them' mindset.
I disagree that people should be left to educate themselves in isolated communities. What happens when our communities clash on important issues? Instead we should agree on what should be taught in schools and work on regulating it and making it self-improving.
I agree that bureucacy and corruption will inevitably have an impact, but whichever way I think about it, not caring as much for your stranger man as for your family or friends is what allows the mind-rape in the long run, and that makes it necessary for us to globally educate people on at least that, so we don't end up where we are now.