Defaulting to belief and trust: why we're where we are?

[Shedbuilder]

I'm currently reading Malcom Gladwell's Talking to Strangers which debunks an awful lot of things we have traditionally taken for granted. So far it's demonstrated how absolutely terrible people are at 'reading' each other, at knowing when people are lying, at being able to read emotion and so on. We are all mysteries to each other.

Time and again he comes back to the fact that we are programmed to default to trust and belief unless the evidence to the contrary is so overwhelming that we are forced to accept it. Inept spies get away with years of subterfuge because no one wants to believe they can't be trusted. Bernie Madoff got away for years with his ponzi scheme because although people had a gut feeling there was something not right about it, no one wanted to probe too deeply.

This is how society has evolved because without trust we can't function. We're programmed to give others the benefit of the doubt. Gladwell cites case after case in which people have overlooked clear evidence in their quest to find a solution or a conclusion that feels right and keeps everything on an even keel, even if it's illogical and wrong.

I've seen people here ask how trans ideology has managed to get so embedded and this is one aspect of it, isn't it? So many people I've come out as GC to have felt relief at being allowed to safely admit they think the trans stuff is bollocks. I've had people tell me they thought it was nonsense from the start but because no one was challenging it, and because it seemed to be a minefield, they'd decided that they must have misunderstood it and had accepted it. Probing it and examining the evidence would rock the boat.

Time after time in Gladwell's account a few clear-eyed, rational cynics have actually seen what was going on. It's usually taken a long time for others to hear what they're saying and change their minds. But they can be changed. We're on the right side of history and this madness will be exposed.

We don’t treat anorexics by agreeing with them that they are too fat and help them starve themselves. I don’t believe medical transition is the best way to help anyone with gender confusion-suicidal thoughts increase after transitioning. The ONLY reason Drs are doing these surgeries is for money-its a disgusting experiment on children and vulnerable adults who need help, not drugs and fake body parts. Just because something is possible doesn’t make it right. I do think the GRA will be overturned & at some point no more GRCs will be issued. We’ll all be a lot more aware of AGP and other fetishes though.

but because no one was challenging it, and because it seemed to be a minefield, they'd decided that they must have misunderstood it

I think this is key. A suffocating orthodoxy has become the recurrent theme in the 21st century West. It seems to have emerged from Judith Butler et al and the identity politics which has colonised academia and political discourse. It has led to the absurd situation wherein 13 year old girls are threatened by the CPS for wanting to maintain sex segregated toilets in schools. This stuff is beyond parody. But here we are. And it is just one example. The other is the inaccurate, but deliberately paralyzing use of the word 'bigot' to ensure discussions are shut down. It's a tautology which has been used to try silence left wing feminist historians like Selina Todd! Her crime was the lobby didn't like her historical research conclusions about what motivated 19th century women to dress as men. This is about controlling the narrative, redefining words with a Newspeak motive, and silencing dissent. It is profoundly authoritarian. And anti democratic.

I've had people tell me they thought it was nonsense from the start but because no one was challenging it, and because it seemed to be a minefield, they'd decided that they must have misunderstood it and had accepted it.

This shows how effective "no debate" has been.

I think a lot of people have been utterly unaware about what as been happening. If you’d told me a year ago that my daughter’s school would formally transition her as a boy and tell me I had no say as a parent, I’d have thought you were utterly insane. In schools certainly, I don’t think the average parent has a clue as to what is being pushed.

Interesting because in ‘blink’ Gladwell argues that we have instinct based on millions and millions of social interactions as we develop, so that we can discern very quickly if something isn’t as it should be. Is this an argument for how easily we override this?

There were very specific areas where we could rely on intuition/split second reasoning, according to 'Blink'. In other areas, our prejudices and blind spots meant that first impressions were unreliable.