The biggest surprising revelation that I've had in life is that the majority of people literally cannot think for themselves. They do not have the mental capacity to do it. If you're in a group that can do it you're in an unusual group and they're typically going to be in a much higher IQ than the average person. We all think that if we give regular people enough evidence that they will come to the conclusion through logic that the evidence points to. In actual fact the most surprising thing and it's taken me years to realize is that most people literally do not have the mental capability to do it. This is why so many people follow authority rather than use logic to come to their own conclusions. To this day I have trouble remembering this and will often try to talk to a group of people using evidence or logic forgetting the fact that most people that you meet in an average group cannot deduce a conclusion from evidence using logic. It's simply hard to believe but it's true.
Big fat dangerous provided this link which illustrates the problem so well I decided to edit this and add this link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2eyq9qTOQYI swear to God most people are human bodies walking around doing exactly any routine that they have learned with barely a brain at all. It's like they're all meat puppets. And it's scary because you think there's something going on behind their eyes and they provide or do things in a routine manner that you associate with actual thinking but they're just doing them from a routine.
Peter_Einsiedler 3 points 2 years ago
You are right, but there is a broader issue. I worked at a good university for about a decade together with quite smart people (electrical engineers, phycisits, mathematicians, etc.) The average IQ at the place was probably 130. Those guys would follow the evidence you showed them until admitting there were at least partially wrong. However, if the issue was a non-pc one, they will completely forget the train of thoughts, conclusions and ramifications from one day to the other. I had to always start from zero again. It's as if they've been programmed to delete such knowledge as soon as it appears.