What is causing the steep rise in the lack of basic understanding of science by the general public?

>understanding
repeating what you are told is not understanding it.
People questioning round earth are more scientists than people just saying the earth is round because thats what they were told in school.

The whole flat earth phenomena is fascinating to me. Why are people who really do not have good or reasonable arguments against the assertion so desperate to go and argue against it with their flawed arguments?

To be clear, it seems to me most reasonable to assume the earth is spherical, but i dont consider people who blindly assert thats false any more intelligent than people who do the opposite.

I regularly lurk on /pol/. Lynch me.

People who pretend to be scientists (NDT and Nye) being assholes who talk about things they don't understand, making everyone who doesn't already love science hate it. It used to be about enticing curiosity and wonder, about how we were all the same (think Sagan). Now, it's mic drops and "it's cool to be a nerd." Fucking gay ass shit

>/pol/
>general public
/pol/ is literally satire under the rule "question everything", its only in the past 2 or 3 years actual genuinely retarded people have infested it, why don't people understand this

Generations come and go from Veeky Forums. What one generation perceives as satire another might perceive as serious.

no but really, why do you believe what you believe?

>expecting logical thinking in pol

No, it is China controlling the Jews.

Extremely heavy information warfare on all levels of infernet. There is no telling how high percentage of flat earthers are actually genuine idiots and how much is psyop to discredit 'fake news'. Especially youtube comments sections seem to be infested with particularly formulaic disinformation agents that have hunderds of identical comments on seemingly unrelated topics.

I believe the genuine side of the problem fixes itself, idiots who go around spouting that bullshit in real world are often uneducated teens and get ostracized from any intelligent communities or groups very quickly.

Surely that increases the problem, if the idiots who spout that bullshit irl get ostracized from intelligent communities it just makes the dumb communities bigger

The retard-friendly culture. People agree with cranks like Woit because he writes in a language that makes them feel like they understand. Actual scientists like Polchinski are much harder to follow if you're a complete retard. Who cares that what Woit says is bullshit, the important thing is that they feel like they understand. Sad state of western society. I look forward to pajeets and chinks becoming our overlords. People will have to actually do something

It just means that no one of any consequence will take them seriously. This will not become a problem only when literal retards become the dominant demographic, and that is unlikely to ever happen. I mean its barely required to have basic understanding of mathematics and physics to come to your own conclusions.

Notice how most of these conspiracy theories and alternative "facts" always originate from America.

Really activates the prefrontal cortex.

This

I like to think that flat earth started as a thought experiment about how you believe stuff just because you were told it, and that you have not actually confirmed it for yourself (most likely).

however, it turned into a bandwagon that redditors etc jumped onto uncritically and became a meme

There isn't anything wrong with asking questions or performing experiments and investigating reality.

The problem is when the flat-earth proposals inevitability devolve in a way that relies on a giant international, thousand year cover up. They set it up so that it's basically 99% of the world against them. What is the point of that? Even if we assume that everything they possibly say is correct they still won't win, or change anything. It's a lose-lose situation for them

>a giant international, thousand year cover up.
Imagine: You're an elite member of the church, a thousand years ago. You are well aware that the Earth is flat.

What do you do to control the people? We'll teach them it's round!

Does that make any sense at all? It's not even a very good sci-fi scenario.

>What is causing the steep rise in the lack of basic understanding of science by the general public?

Internet trolling gone bad is causing the steep rise, the problem is science illiterate people and young kids who don't know any better are accepting this information on face value.

Though currently it only seems to apply to astrophysics and climate science. There doesn't seem to be any real widespread uncertainty about the science behind topics such as computing and vehicle travel.

Maybe it has something to do with how many degrees of personal influence or abstraction a given field of science has on an individual's life.

Though this would not explain the general acceptance of math. Unless most people are to stupid to troll using math or don't want to look completely stupid for not knowing math and thus leave it alone like.

Wait. Flat earthers are actually serious?

>public looses faith in science
>government cuts science funding
>government supported scientists lose their jobs
>non-government scientists lose government grants

What job do you have that is more secure without science funding? POTUS?

Do you sell nutritional supplements?

Of course they are. Just like young-earth creationists and other biblical literalists.

im an engineer. it behooves me to have a population of scientifically illiterate faggots. they can scream their bullshit all they want, but at the end of the day, you aren't launching satellites into space with a flat earth model, and you aren't finding oil with a young earth model. industry doesn't abide these retards.

>What is causing the steep rise in the lack of basic understanding of science by the general public?

Seems like cowardice but how would I know?

Dumb people are easier to control than intelligent people. "The powers that be" are actively turning people against reason, knowledge and the free flow of information in an attempt to turn humans into cattle who only exist to improve the lives of the powerful.

I hate corporate engineers so much.

"Public relations"
Listen to Noam Chomsky. Read manufacturing consent

Example.
People are trained against rationalism, cognition is capitalized.

What the fuck is happening with our civilisation? This is infuriating

>within the context of the sexist society we live in

gota love feminists. OP posts question about the implications of increasing scientific illiteracy and this person blames the patriarchy.

Wow a whole 0.003% of their budget.

...it's pasta, user. Read it again. It's long winded nonsense that has the appearance and structure of a post, but doesn't actually ever say anything.

Because it's trivial to prove with basic knowledge of geometry.

Conspiracy theorists typically do not present healthy skeptical behavior, rather they have enormous selection biases and merely look for supporting evidence for whatever mental illness is causing their delusions.

Sola scriptura Protestantism is a fucking cancer on western civilization

TFW you find out that people are less scienfifically saavy now than any generation that ever existed

We now have access to like minded people that will agree with our opinions as many people will hold them as facts and shy away from those who aren't like minded.

I am sorry i am awake for 10 minutes

>You will live to see the scientific community burned at the stake for witchcraft in your lifetime.

Beautiful...

Can this be its own meme yet?

Pol is the bottom wrung of society
They are in no way indicative of the general population

>What is causing the steep rise in the lack of basic understanding of science by the general public?

In America the public education system is in a state of deep intentional neglect. The economic system that the public depends on is a sham falling apart in more and more obvious ways every day. To keep the whole scam operating the public is being dumbed down so they don't fight.

Don't underestimate the power of propaganda. People, generally, are extremely gullible and susceptible to manipulation.

The science is bad meme is a deliberate attack against the American population by those benefiting the most from keeping the economic system unchanged.

I use to think the flat earth thing as a tongue and cheek way of making fun of science denialism.

It has been one, for a while already.

People are finally waking up and understanding most of science is bullshit spread by atheists like evolution.

Have you ever launched a camera into space long enough to get a picture of what's out there?

Mansplaining has been a meme. Look it up, there's professional articles on it.

Tasty pasta

There are easier ways to verify that earth is not flat. Ever heard the story about that guy looking at the docks and noticing that the ships appear in a very particular way. He noticed that you first see the sails of the ships.

...

poor education, and media.

>This will not become a problem only when literal retards become the dominant demographic, and that is unlikely to ever happen.
they don't have to become the dominant demographic. if they become 10% or above of the population politicians will start pandering to them, snd their votes will have real life implications. if you thin we're that far off from 10% percent and they don't yet influence policies you're willfully keeping your head under the sand.

>Dumb people are easier to control than intelligent people. "The powers that be" are actively turning people against reason
these people were born dumb, they weren't turned dumb by ebil wurld gubbement, you lunatic

you must be from amurrika. It is your goverment that produces obedient idiots instead of educated self thinking citizens. All because obedient idiots are easier to control. Your eductaion system is designed to lower every student to lowest common denominator in class. Also movies, music all that propaganda always promotes some idiots. SF movies do not gave that science part anymore.

I do not think it's the indicated thread, but fuck off

What is this?

sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/REPROCESSING/Completed/2016/c3/20160214/20160214_0142_c3_1024.jpg

...

It's happening almost everywhere. Look at the retards here in yuropoor fighting against nuclear power. It's disgusting how cucked everyone is. I'm looking forward to chinks taking over.

>What is causing the steep rise in the lack of basic understanding of science by the general public?
our educational system has been under attack for half a century user. It's been a subtle thing and it shows up least in the engineering fields because they actually matter to everyday life.
If you look at a phenomena called grade inflation. you'll find some interesting data
>pic related

>rise in the lack

Reifying the absence of something, are we?

>What is causing the steep rise in the lack of basic understanding of science by the general public?
It's not just the general public. Just mention sociology, psychology or gender on Veeky Forums and watch the anti-intellectuals shit their pants.

I am convinced that there are 3 types of people on /pol/

Those who are legitimately fucking ass backwards stupid enough to look at some picture on the Internet and use that as proof for some conjecture of the earth being flat akin to being fuckin retarded

Those trolls who merely pretend to be retarded to get a ruse

And the people who will make hundreds of posts trying to refute these retards when really they're talking to a wall because the amount of evidence will never be greater than the amount of ignorance no matter how strong

>What is causing the steep rise in the lack of basic understanding of science by the general public?
I'm not sure there is one.
I think what were actually seeing is a shift in how irrationality presents itself. We're moving away from "trust-based" moments like cults, mysticism and fringe religions; and towards "distrust-based" movements like conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and faux-scepticism.

You forgot the most important demographic; Disinfo agents. There are tons of formulaic thread derailers and discreditors, just like in youtube comment sections of 'fake news' videos. While im sure there has been a steep rise in actual idiots aswell, its the main reason i stopped posting in pol more than an year ago. Its literally impossible to discuss any meaningful topic and keep it civil and based on verifiable facts.

I mean just compare Veeky Forums and 8 c h a n pol boards, one has genuine humans discussing politics, other is a complete shitshow. And if you think that political mongolian basket weaving forum with millions of monthly visitors does not get its share of global multi-trillion dollar intelligence, counter-intelligence and information warfare budgets, you are very naive.

Wait... do you mean to say that people go apeshit with crazy shitposting on a troll containment boar? Shocked, SHOCKED, I am to learn of this.

Only the second one can be untrue. You can prove the rest using a shit telescope and basic physics. The Jew still has no power over maths - for now.

Go prep the bull Sven
>inb4 CNN told me nationalistic people can't be smart
O-ok. I'm sure that your Facebook bachelor is better than my masters