99.9% of people's ideas about anything is just garbage

[Hello from Russia]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how people's ideas have been affecting me through my life. I notice I have/had some ideas about things which led me in completely horseshit directions in life or situations or made me do things that are suboptimal.

Lately I've been doing a lot of "genealogy" of these ideas. And of course 100% of them came from other people. They came from random talks with random ordinary people or from me overhearing or somehow consuming other's people thoughts

What I also noticed is how shitty and outright stupid all these ideas were, like they are pure stupidity. Even though I got some of them mostly from people who I was looking up to 

I couldn't help but wonder how come these people have such bad ideas about stuff

And I just realized, dude, most people's ideas about anything are absolute garbage. It's like I take just any random ordinary person I know and do a mental experiment - how bad are their ideas about anything? I shuffle through many lenses and modalities, either big (like their ideas about politics, etc) or small (how to do small technical minutia in some topic) and I just see it's so bad

It is so bad it makes me sick how wrong the ordinary person just about everything, it's just mind-numbing. And especially how stupid it is on me to give a lot of credence to their ideas without much consideration. It really costs you a lot in the long run and it's so hard to escape being infected by these ideas cause every day you get bombarded by them from everywhere even if you just sit at home

Edited February 22 by Hello from Russia

[Consept]

You could flip this idea though, as an experiment try and steelman their arguments, even if its complete bullshit try and understand what they believe, what might be true about it and even if you cant find much truth in it, why it might be compelling for them to believe it. 

For example, those that follow scientology may, theres truth in exploring your mind or bringing dark memories to light could help you, also it benefits followers to believe because they are looking for community or certainty in their lives. 

I think from what you wrote it isnt necessarily peoples ideas that bother you, its more that you take them on wholesale without contemplation. Of course everyone is going to have gigantic blindspots, especially as, as we are as people like certainty, so when we take on an order we 'know' that its true. We will even argue with others about how our perspective is the true one, what we're really arguing for is a certainty about the world. 

So i think its good to take on new information, use healthy skepticism and be open to changing your mind. As well do put someone so high on a pedestal that a coherent argument from them solidifies that perspective for you. 

[DefinitelyNotARobot]

59 minutes ago, Hello from Russia said:

I couldn't help but wonder how come these people have such bad ideas about stuff

Look at it that way: An insight can't happen from within a mental framework. It requires you to make a leap of faith, beyond your current understanding of reality. You have to get in touch with something beyond your current horizon... but why would you do that?

Think about what kind of upbringing, experiences, books, people and opportunities it took for you to get to a point where you're opening yourself up to these deeper dimensions of reality, such as spirituality. Now think about what would happen if we shuffled them around. What if we switched your date and place of birth to Nazi Germany and gave you Nazi books instead of self-help books. Would you still believe the same things you believe now?

It's understandable to frustrated with people. Dealing with them can be a pain in the ass, but they also provide for an opportunity to look deeper into ourselves and our self-judgements which we project onto them. Are you judging them and their stupid beliefs, or are you judging yourself and your own beliefs and projecting that relationship outwards?

By inquiring deeper into the root of your frustration, you actually kill two birds with one stone. You heal your relationship to the other people and how you think and feel about them, but also how you relate to yourself, all of your internal talk and and insecurities and so on.

Here is something mind blowing. How you think and talk about others can often reflect your internal self-talk. So i want you to read your post and ask yourself: Are these things you believe to be true for yourself? It's not necessarily about the content of the words, but the vibe which the words emit.

[DefinitelyNotARobot]

And if you want to be even more precise, you could say that all human ideas are an infinitude away from "maximum" understanding, because there is no  limit to understanding. Human ignorance truly knows no bounds.

Edited February 22 by DefinitelyNotARobot

[James123]

2 hours ago, Hello from Russia said:

I've been thinking a lot lately about how people's ideas have been affecting me through my life. I notice I have/had some ideas about things which led me in completely horseshit directions in life or situations or made me do things that are suboptimal.

Lately I've been doing a lot of "genealogy" of these ideas. And of course 100% of them came from other people. They came from random talks with random ordinary people or from me overhearing or somehow consuming other's people thoughts

What I also noticed is how shitty and outright stupid all these ideas were, like they are pure stupidity. Even though I got some of them mostly from people who I was looking up to 

I couldn't help but wonder how come these people have such bad ideas about stuff

And I just realized, dude, most people's ideas about anything are absolute garbage. It's like I take just any random ordinary person I know and do a mental experiment - how bad are their ideas about anything? I shuffle through many lenses and modalities, either big (like their ideas about politics, etc) or small (how to do small technical minutia in some topic) and I just see it's so bad

It is so bad it makes me sick how wrong the ordinary person just about everything, it's just mind-numbing. And especially how stupid it is on me to give a lot of credence to their ideas without much consideration. It really costs you a lot in the long run and it's so hard to escape being infected by these ideas cause every day you get bombarded by them from everywhere even if you just sit at home

Any idea is garbage. 

[Razard86]

2 hours ago, James123 said:

Any idea is garbage. 

Says the garbage man.

[mmKay]

Check out Leo's blog post about Learning from partially wrong perspectives

[Madyar]

a living human model of experiencing reality has a cap attached to it, let's call it in that way! human body has a defined metric of abilities which most people never even reached, but if you let that alone you'll find out this bugs and errors or flaws it all part of experiencing denser layers of reality so i think you are facing many half life human forms (not being there enough or alive!) type of individuals which is pretty understandable. overall i got your point and frustrations  

Edited February 22 by Madyar

[Applegarden8]

Stupid ideas are enough for self-preservation, that's why they are so popular. But that is a life lived in gossip, mediocrity, pain, jelousy, projection, gaslighting and yes, stupid assumptions.

It's the typical Christianity like idea as an example: "Sorry Jesus that I am going to sin (do something which I wouldn't want to be done to myself and maybe have enough awareness feel guilty about it)  but admitting that to myself is basically pointless because I will not do anything to solve it and I will do it the same all over again and go trough the same restlesness, guilt and unbarable pain, constantly whishing that situations, life, people whould be different now and in the past which is not possible."

[ted73104]

Come on, does it matter? As long as everyone is safe and happy, why not do or think whatever we want?

[Yimpa]

35 minutes ago, ted73104 said:

Come on, does it matter? As long as everyone is safe and happy, why not do or think whatever we want?

A criminal or a psychopath can literally say the same thing. So best to be intuitive on sensing who is genuinely saying that and who is tricking ya.

[ted73104]

25 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

A criminal or a psychopath can literally say the same thing. So best to be intuitive on sensing who is genuinely saying that and who is tricking ya.

Hmm, you're right. I just feel that the original post has too high of a standard about people's ability to make sense of reality.

[Yimpa]

1 hour ago, ted73104 said:

Hmm, you're right. I just feel that the original post has too high of a standard about people's ability to make sense of reality.

I guess we shouldn’t be posting high, then 

But now that begs the question… who is high - you or OP..?!

[UnbornTao]

On 2/22/2024 at 4:12 PM, Razard86 said:

Says the garbage man.

What do you mean?

[bebotalk]

Most of our ideas are developed off those of others. Life is an endless chain of cause and effect.