The Internet: We Know You Can Use It, So DO IT!

You know, I remember the internet coming into my home when I was about 15 (1994). It didn't take long to figure it out--in fact, the dial-up AOL modem took longer to connect to the internet than it took for me to learn how to use it to search things, or get into chat rooms, or play games online.

Here we are, 22 years later, and the internet is as second-nature to navigate and access as eating with a fork, so why is it that whenever there is a controversial flavor of the month (this month, it's gun control), people have such an adverse reaction to actually doing some research? And I mean real research--actually seeking out the source of state and federal laws that mandate this or that concerning owning and purchasing firearms, or what is actually entailed in the process of purchasing a firearm, or how old you have to be in different states to purchase ammunition, or if there's a waiting period in one state versus another, or if there are certain storage laws governing firearms in one's home, or if you must register your firearm in your state, or if you can freely open-carry without a permit, or whatever.

Instead, we get the apathetic folk who just like to link to incorrect or ideologically driven websites that incorrectly or incompletely "report" information on the topic, and then arguments are formed based on ignorance or, at the least, incorrect information. And this doesn't just happen with firearms--you can pick nearly any politicized topic and there will be this sort of thing going on, and it happens on all sides of the argument, where one person may cite ThinkProgress and another counters with a Breitbart story--both generally having incomplete information, taking things out of context, and editorializing instead of reporting. And many times, the links to the source of the information is right in the story, but nobody cares to look deeper.

Global Warming
Vaccines
LGBT Issues
Perceived Racial Issues
The Welfare State
The Election
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Perceived Police Brutality
Etc.
Etc.

The list goes on and on.

What is it about today's commenters on threads? Why is there such an aversion to seek out the source information and actually link to and quote from it--and in the process, learn from it? Not all of my opinions are proven correct over time, and when they're taken down with actual information, I concede that I was wrong and I adapt my opinion.

But nobody seems to care about facts and studies and findings anymore, and if they do, the majority scream at someone else to show them the study instead of seeking it out on their own. It's usually only a few minutes away by searching the internet, yet apparently that's too much time to devote to a topic, so instead, the screaming of uninformed opinions perpetuates.

And even then, sometimes the studies themselves are tainted by the agenda of the group performing the study or problems overlooked during the study, which render them useless. I understand that figuring that out is yet another layer of research, but when we're on a website whose tagline is "Deny Ignorance," don't we owe it to ourselves to look to see if the information is trustworthy?

Maybe that's the problem--our system of sciences and politics and education and lobbying has become so corrupted that it's easier to not do the work and just find the story that aligns with our ideology. I don't know, but I'm not the type of individual who accepts that sort of process. I have a NEED to know, to the best of my ability, that what I'm arguing is based on fact, and if not fact, on some level of logic that makes sense, and in the modern "information age" in which we live, there really is no excuse not to seek out the root of the information that you're arguing.

Quit relying on others to do it for you. Quit refusing to put forth the effort so that you can speak intelligently. Quit acting like, if you find out information that proves you wrong, that it's a bad thing. It's okay to be wrong. It's not okay to be lazy and outspoken and be wrong, all because of willful ignorance.

Sorry this was so long, but I'm tired of people always wanting or needing the research done for them, or else they'll keep on spouting off with ignorant statements that are wrong--and still try to defend them. You should expect more from yourself, if you are doing this.

And I'm not perfect--I know I do it from time to time, but I do admit if I am wrong. I wish others could do the same. This whole site should be all about learning the truth, or at least, as close as we can get to it.

This might be a bit OT, but for many years I have been thinking, in bygone years when the people were upset about something they marched by the 10000s in the streets, showing TPTB things must change, and in many cases things did change for the better. Now when people are upset they run to the internet and blow steam off but dont do anything about it. Seems to me that TPTB love the internet, they dont have to face the people. True there are still some "small" marches but nothing like before the internet.
PS nice post

a reply to: SlapMonkey

I agree, 110%.

What I find equally annoying are those who use a given site as absolute, irrefutable proof that something is "true".

They refuse to look at other sources in an attempt to take it all in, weigh accordingly, and make their own decisions.

And with regards to ATS in particular, I find the intellectual elitism to be highly aggravating.

"Oh, you're WRONG! So and So ALREADY has proven this!"

Usually the so and so is regarded with the same reverence and gravitas as one would expect to hear during a church sermon.


And let's not even get started on the false assumptions people make when looking to "battle/win" against you.

"If you say X you MUST be a Y!"

a reply to: imod02

Agreed. But at the same time, lawmakers and public officials were also much more accessible to the general public, so they could make a change in such ways.

Nowadays our politicians travel around in their little spheres of protection and pretend that they are lords and we are just the common folk, with whom they shouldn't have contact lest they contract the plague.

Making a change by sheer number of bodies anymore doesn't always make a difference because politicians don't have the same fear of the people anymore. Once someone believe that they are above you, they regard you less and less.

a reply to: SlapMonkey
To a point yes, but history is full of people changing goverments who belived they were above the people, but now the people hide behind the internet.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
Here we are, 22 years later, and the internet is as second-nature to navigate and access as eating with a fork, so why is it that whenever there is a controversial flavor of the month (this month, it's gun control), people have such an adverse reaction to actually doing some research?

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can lead the unwashed masses to a source of infinite intellectual resources, but you can't make them smart.

Remember, it was a small number of people who invented the computer. People who were much smarter than the average person who was going to use it. What the inventors should have done was make it as hard to access a computer and the subsequent inter-web, as it was to invent it in the first place. As it is though, the internet is a user driven machine. Meaning that the content on it is only as useful as the people who put it there.

We make things such as this and they end up being used as toys.....which was not the original intent.

a reply to: SlapMonkey



Yea

a reply to: DeepImpactX

While I agree (and the same logic could be used for guns, which are often used as toys for target practice and competition shooting as they are for hunting and war and self-defense), that's not really the point I was trying to make. Computers are multi-use tools, and playing on them is just as valid as researching on them. I just can't stand people who use the machines as an extension of an ignorant voice when the cure to the ignorance is often as easy to find on the same machine as their favorite app or game.

a reply to: Vector99

Had my headphones on...and the volume too high. Damn.

"You've got mail!" generally followed that up, if memory serves.

a reply to: Lysergic

I highly appreciate where this thread is going

People are stupid
People are lazy

Pick one

No one takes the time to find three credible sources, much less look past the first page of a google search.
Back in the day NOT finding 3 sources got you whapped upside the head by the teacher with a Encyclopedia Brittanica.

I miss corporal punishment in schools!