It's not even "for the sake of health and community", though...
It's because the media tells them to, and social media tells them to, and a) they are scared shitless, b) they want to signal their virtue, and shit on others who don't, c) it gives people who should not have it (health bureaucrats, for one) enormous, unchecked and unwarranted power, and d) normies in jobs where they can lazily work from home, and still get paid, while sitting on their arse and having shit delivered by people who actually have real jobs, love it, and never want it to go back to normal...
That's the problem. Also a complete lack of empathy, which is perhaps the most terrifying thing. Empathy seems to be dead, in Australian society now (except selective empathy). I saw that in the Aussie subreddits, and on other social media, even prior to this, but it seems to have permeated all areas of society now...
If you aren't a pro-vax, pro-authoritarian, useful idiot, society here will not only ostracise you, but it will try and destroy your life, now, it seems... Never in my wildest dreams did I think "outgroup demonization" would reach these levels... Never. Not here, at least. But here we are.
Empathy's been dying for quite some time now. Ever since 2014, I've been watching it slowly die. Have the wrong opinion? Get cancelled.
It's almost as if the idea of critical thinking died and in its place came absolute good and evil. Everyone wants to be perceived as the absolute good. Have an opinion that is any way thoughtful and watch it be vilified or dismissed as "Alt Right" or "Nazi" or even "Control Left" (because it happens on both sides of the spectrum).
It's funny you say that about people lazily wanting to sit at home and accept it. I used to joke that Mike Judges Idiocracy was less a comedy and more a documentary, but never really fully believed it as I didn't really believe humanity could be that frightfully stupid. But looking at it now in 2021? It's full on documentary and almost scarily accurate to where our world is headed. The ignorant masses will sit at home binging their bullshit Netflix TV shows, getting paid to do the bare minimum while the world around them will crumble and before they know it, their freedoms will be gone and in that place will be complete and utter dependence on a broken economy. All because humanity just stopped caring and became complacent in its own feeble will to "exist" according to its fee fees and on the bare minimum. And it will be because of the manufactured fear mongering of catching a virus that they have more chance of surviving from than anything else.
Hell, even in Idiocracy, law had become rather retarded and simply boiled down to public opinion of "they're guilty" without so much as a critical thought...sound familiar? Public opinion reigns supreme and if you say the wrong thing on social media then watch the mob take you down. I'm utterly convinced Mike Judge has a time ma-sheen and he made Idiocracy as a god damn warning to us all.
Ignorance will reign supreme. Sadly. Pathetically.
Also a complete lack of empathy, which is perhaps the most terrifying thing. Empathy seems to be dead, in Australian society now (except selective empathy)
You should read the book "Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion". It points out that empathy is a terrible system to base morality on since it is pretty much selective by default. If you look carefully amongst those promoting "empathy" it is always towards certain groups, not others, and, in my view, has become a massive political weapon to drive society in a certain ways. What we need instead is "rational compassion", where we have compassion for all people, and apply this as a rational form of morality.
Another way of thinking about this is we need to step away from a "feeling-based" form of morality, which we have now, and go back to a "thinking-based" form of morality, which was the mainstay of the past (this is the form of morality that religions such as Christianity and Buddhism are based on). I also suspect that the reason "feeling-based" morality now dominates is the feminisation of society - where feelings are considered more important than actually thinking.
You should read the book "Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion". It points out that empathy is a terrible system to base morality on since it is pretty much selective by default.
I need to add that to my list, thanks. One of my personal theories has been that the expansion of empathy has led to its diminishment. As Dawkins wrote, with instant communication and globalization our circle of empathy has gotten larger and larger. But humans aren't actually capable of being empathetic towards everyone. When we see too much news about crime, injustice, and suffering, we shut down and become numb to it. In fact what we do instead is lip service to empathy. Either "I feel your pain. Oh yes, we must understand the plight of the refugees. Yes it's terrible how the LGBTQs are treated. Ugh, why is everyone so anti-Muslim?", or we do the opposite and put the target in an "out-group" so we won't have to feel empathy for them. "Haha, that dumbass should have known better not to do (whatever) if he didn't want to be a victim. That fucker was a hateful bigot and deserves what he got."
We don't actually feel the emotion of all other humans, because that's not possible nor is it the evolutionary purpose of empathy, which is to facilitate our position as social animals within well-defined tribal groups. It's also a very basic neurological function that other mammals have too. (If a cat sees you petting another cat, the first one may start purring.)
In other words people are becoming sociopaths who act like they're empathetic - but only towards specific blessed targets of oppression that may change as the regime changes.
It's not even "for the sake of health and community", though...
It's because the media tells them to, and social media tells them to, and a) they are scared shitless, b) they want to signal their virtue, and shit on others who don't, c) it gives people who should not have it (health bureaucrats, for one) enormous, unchecked and unwarranted power, and d) normies in jobs where they can lazily work from home, and still get paid, while sitting on their arse and having shit delivered by people who actually have real jobs, love it, and never want it to go back to normal...
That's the problem. Also a complete lack of empathy, which is perhaps the most terrifying thing. Empathy seems to be dead, in Australian society now (except selective empathy). I saw that in the Aussie subreddits, and on other social media, even prior to this, but it seems to have permeated all areas of society now...
If you aren't a pro-vax, pro-authoritarian, useful idiot, society here will not only ostracise you, but it will try and destroy your life, now, it seems... Never in my wildest dreams did I think "outgroup demonization" would reach these levels... Never. Not here, at least. But here we are.
Empathy's been dying for quite some time now. Ever since 2014, I've been watching it slowly die. Have the wrong opinion? Get cancelled.
It's almost as if the idea of critical thinking died and in its place came absolute good and evil. Everyone wants to be perceived as the absolute good. Have an opinion that is any way thoughtful and watch it be vilified or dismissed as "Alt Right" or "Nazi" or even "Control Left" (because it happens on both sides of the spectrum).
It's funny you say that about people lazily wanting to sit at home and accept it. I used to joke that Mike Judges Idiocracy was less a comedy and more a documentary, but never really fully believed it as I didn't really believe humanity could be that frightfully stupid. But looking at it now in 2021? It's full on documentary and almost scarily accurate to where our world is headed. The ignorant masses will sit at home binging their bullshit Netflix TV shows, getting paid to do the bare minimum while the world around them will crumble and before they know it, their freedoms will be gone and in that place will be complete and utter dependence on a broken economy. All because humanity just stopped caring and became complacent in its own feeble will to "exist" according to its fee fees and on the bare minimum. And it will be because of the manufactured fear mongering of catching a virus that they have more chance of surviving from than anything else.
Hell, even in Idiocracy, law had become rather retarded and simply boiled down to public opinion of "they're guilty" without so much as a critical thought...sound familiar? Public opinion reigns supreme and if you say the wrong thing on social media then watch the mob take you down. I'm utterly convinced Mike Judge has a time ma-sheen and he made Idiocracy as a god damn warning to us all.
Ignorance will reign supreme. Sadly. Pathetically.
This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
You should read the book "Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion". It points out that empathy is a terrible system to base morality on since it is pretty much selective by default. If you look carefully amongst those promoting "empathy" it is always towards certain groups, not others, and, in my view, has become a massive political weapon to drive society in a certain ways. What we need instead is "rational compassion", where we have compassion for all people, and apply this as a rational form of morality.
Another way of thinking about this is we need to step away from a "feeling-based" form of morality, which we have now, and go back to a "thinking-based" form of morality, which was the mainstay of the past (this is the form of morality that religions such as Christianity and Buddhism are based on). I also suspect that the reason "feeling-based" morality now dominates is the feminisation of society - where feelings are considered more important than actually thinking.
I need to add that to my list, thanks. One of my personal theories has been that the expansion of empathy has led to its diminishment. As Dawkins wrote, with instant communication and globalization our circle of empathy has gotten larger and larger. But humans aren't actually capable of being empathetic towards everyone. When we see too much news about crime, injustice, and suffering, we shut down and become numb to it. In fact what we do instead is lip service to empathy. Either "I feel your pain. Oh yes, we must understand the plight of the refugees. Yes it's terrible how the LGBTQs are treated. Ugh, why is everyone so anti-Muslim?", or we do the opposite and put the target in an "out-group" so we won't have to feel empathy for them. "Haha, that dumbass should have known better not to do (whatever) if he didn't want to be a victim. That fucker was a hateful bigot and deserves what he got."
We don't actually feel the emotion of all other humans, because that's not possible nor is it the evolutionary purpose of empathy, which is to facilitate our position as social animals within well-defined tribal groups. It's also a very basic neurological function that other mammals have too. (If a cat sees you petting another cat, the first one may start purring.)
In other words people are becoming sociopaths who act like they're empathetic - but only towards specific blessed targets of oppression that may change as the regime changes.