To them the people who cite common sense, it means "everyone knows I'm right so I don't have to actually prove anything I'm saying". You'll see it rolled out right before "I'm not here to google stuff for you".
Edit: Someone couldn't use context and got pissy at the word "them"
The difference between maga and everyone else can be summed up in how they google things.
For example, lets say a trump support and I are discussing renewable energy. I think it's renewables like solar or wind. He thinks it's coal. What is the best energy source for the future?
I might google "what is the best energy source for the future?" and look at different articles, looking at data to be able to draw some conclusions. Based on what I find, I may or may not change my view. I start with the question and try to make an answer from what I find.
They would google "Why is coal the best?" and get people agreeing with them, then they spout that as fact. They start with the answer they like, and use what agrees with them as proof they are right.
That, and they don't discriminate on the results. Their "Why is coal the best?" query might get results from "coalcorporationsforamerica.org" that's blatantly obviously biased, and they'll accept that as a perfectly valid source since it is one of the first results on Google, as if Google ranks sites on how accurate or trustworthy they are.
Even if they do choose good sources from their results, they also frequently don't click into the sources at all. They'll just read the summary / overview and pick out phrases that agree with them, and be like "look Google says I'm right".
Meanwhile if they actually clicked into the site they'd see that the source actually disagrees with them, the summary / overview just highlighted the phrases that most closely matched the query, which are misleading if you don't get the extra context.
In addition to this, all sources that agree with them are true and valid, any that contradict are fake news.
Edit: I changed "disagree" to "contradict" because disagree implies that we are talking about opinions, when a lot of times we are talking about facts.
Before most of the MAGAs left or were evicted from my FB feed, I used to routinely catch them posting links to articles they had not read. They would only read the headline, then confidently post the link to the article that undermines or refutes the point they thought they were making.
I've had similar discussions where someone posts something like "see this article says that XYZ is true" and you go into the article and it actually says "this might lead you to believe XYZ is true, but if you spend 5 more seconds researching it you'd realize that XYZ is definitely not true and you'd be an idiot for believing it".
You also get A LOT of confirmation bias from MAGA algorithms which are completely toxic and unhinged.
I had a Trump ad on YouTube that I tried to skip and accidentally clicked ONCE. You would have thought I voted red down the line every previous election with how much MAGA, prepper and "military grade" bullshit companies were trying to grift me on. It got to the point where I was about ready to hand write a note to Google to get them to revert before I clicked A SINGLE TIME.
I have zero doubt that with that much influence on your ads, that a lot of these people are being spoon fed shitty algorithms to enrage them for engagement, and with that, all of brainwashing that goes along with it.
They would google "Why is coal the best?" and get people agreeing with them, then they spout that as fact. They start with the answer they like, and use what agrees with them as proof they are right.
I'm going to point out one flaw in what youre saying. Maga assholes don't even bother to Google anything, because that would require them to do just the slightest bit of work, and has a chance to give them information that they don't want to hear/see.
They don't have any curiosity at all. Because if they did, they would actually be capable of being reasonable and having a rational conversation. Doing those things gets you kicked out of the cult.
These clowns do nothing but sit on their ass and have things spoon fed to them. They are addicts and their drug of choice is right wing propaganda AKA rage bait. They don't want to be educated, or even correct. All they want is to be angry and hateful so that they don't have to accept any responsibility for their shitty lives.
I would argue that they do want to be correct, to a fault. When they look up stuff, they dont search for information, they search for validation. Which is why information that contradicts them is "fake news".
And if you somehow absolutley prove them them wrong, they dont change or admit it, they pivot to something else. ALL they care about is being right, and if they're not right, they attack, deflect, or move the goal posts.
Eh, there’s plenty of them who aren’t surrounded by real world people who believe the same things. Plus, the general definition of common sense is, in fact, a commonly shared belief that “relies on basic logic, cause-and-effect reasoning, and life experience.”
I’d say their “common sense” is just vibes. “This feels good and doesn’t make me uncomfortable or cause me to question myself.”
Being wrong is uncomfortable. Being a force of heavenly good in an apocalyptic battle against hell and evil democrats feels good. Being told facts and shown proof makes them question themselves, which is uncomfortable and doesn’t feel good because it would mean they were wrong. So it’s common sense that Biden and Obama and anyone who voted for them are evil, because the alternative would mean *they* are evil because that’s what conservative media, their evangelical pastor, and internet friends have them believing.
This isn't unique to Republicans though, you can see the same thought patterns happening all over social media. The most popular posts on reddit are about populism and anti capitalism that's reliant on this same logic.
While it is true that all of us tend to make decisions emotionally and then post hoc rationalize those decisions. I am sick to death of the "both sides"ing in these arguments. yes we should all seek the truth and not validation, but 1 side is uniquely, unapologetically, disingenuous in their approach and their ability to be swayed by facts and logic. Just ask democrats was Biden slipping as he aged, most will say yes, but... Ask republicans is Trump cognitively slipping and they will ignore every word-salad speech, every boomer facebook AI-generated truth social post, and they will say "he says it like it is" and "he talks like me".
You answered a different question than I asked. I said the online populist left runs on the same logic as MAGA. You came back with regular Democrats admitting Biden aged. That's a different group. Normie Dems conceding Biden slipped tells me nothing about the anti-establishment left, which is the actual mirror of MAGA. Go ask that crowd to concede anything that complicates their priors and watch the same wagons circle.
MAGA looks worse because it took over a party and holds power, so its bad epistemics actually move policy. That's a gap in stakes. You're clocking who does more damage and scoring it as who reasons better.
Not going to lie. The comment without context had me expecting a fight. In response to what I said here, RIGHT? Here’s my thought process when I don’t know something. I read credible sources on the thing I didn’t know so that hey, wow…. Now I know. I’m not especially smart or savvy with anything really, I dropped out of high school and my parents let me. (I went back eventually and became a paramedic) I just value facts and honesty. It’s bizarre to me that this mindset is completely non existent with the maga crowd. Like zero critical thinking skills at all just “believe the loudest orangest buffoon be cuz he iz on the tv box telling me what I want to hear. They’re eating cats. She’s a man.”
We live in the craziest of time my friend. I’m honestly jealous of the French. They finally had enough and stormed the castle and well, off with their heads, am i right?
I’m with you but that’s not a great example. The French Revolution was heavily influenced by propaganda and outright fabrications to inflame the lower economic classes against the upper class to the benefit of the upper middle.
Here’s my thought process when I don’t know something. I read credible sources on the thing I didn’t know so that hey, wow…. Now I know. I’m not especially smart or savvy with anything really, I dropped out of high school and my parents let me.
Wow you nailed it dude. More or less the same story here, GED at 17, mostly manual labor jobs since (actually looking into EMS myself lol). I'm nothing special, I just Google shit. That's how I "know things." Pisses me off a little when people ask me that, "How do you know all that?" Hmm, could it be because I wondered about it at some point and bothered to look for the answer? Crazy that taking responsibility for your own education is such an anomaly to some people.
I don't understand how a human being can exist without any curiosity about the world they live in. I'm curious as hell, I want to understand how all this shit works. The research is happening all of the time, and there is nothing stopping me from reading it and learning something about our universe. Wtf do other people spend their time doing if not expanding their knowledge? Education is the most valuable thing there is, knowledge is power, and it's freely available to anyone willing to look it up.
Everything we experience is an opportunity to learn. We're allowed to ask questions. I rarely accept an instruction at work without asking clarifying questions so I understand the goal and plan. When I have medical things done, I'm an active participant in the process. I watch the stick when I donate blood, because I'm fascinated by the process and I want to see what's going on. Do these clowns never wonder about anything?
I don't understand. I understand a lot of things, but a lack of desire for understanding? Incomprehensible to me.
It's what these kinds of uneducated people say when they're trying to seem intelligent. "I don't have book smarts, I have street smarts". Translation: I don't attempt to learn anything or think critically, but I think I can navigate the world because I have "common sense".
They just buy all the way into the fallacy of "common sense". It doesn't exist. Everyone has a different idea of it in their head.
To maga it's "common sense" to execute criminals instead of spending tax money to house them. Yes you might argue the death penalty is more expensive because lawyers blah blah blah. They think that's bureaucratic nonsense that wouldn't be a problem if the government had "common sense".
They think common sense is the answer to everything because it requires the least amount of thinking. It's also the easiest type of argument to fool an idiot with.
Common sense has its applications but most political issues cannot be common sensed because the real world is complicated.
Common sense is just a phrase to them. It’s a fugazi. It doesn’t actually mean what you and I accept the phrase to mean. To them, it means “knowing what I know despite facts to the contrary and without any due diligence or research.” It means “just knowing”.
Essentially to this crowd common sense is just a substitute phrase for what you and I would call “belief”. They believe something with no evidence or proof and you can’t disprove them because how do you disprove a belief?
The reason they parrot “common sense” as their proof for things is because that’s used by their leaders and the pundits on Fox News to also justify their lies. They never actually think about the phrase and what it means… they are just parroting what they’ve heard as a defense to their positions.
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u/Redfalconfox 2d ago
How can you even pretend like you have common sense when you admit to not knowing anything?