Uninformed people?

Question

Why are there so many people - mostly college kids because that is what I am surrounded by - that feel the need to get involved in political debates (which is awesome!!) BUT they are completely uninformed and you can tell they just regurgitate something that their parents said?? How can I tell my friends to either close their mouth or inform themselves??

Answer 1

college people? not just them everyone! I  hear quite often  from educated people, that  Obama is a Muslim!

Quite a blatant lie but do they care? No!

People vote on the looks/perception not the facts.

Answer 2

You can't; that's just the way it is.  The good part is that uninformed people (about 80% of voters), statistically speaking, tend to split right down the middle when it comes to choosing between two candidates.  That means that the rest of us - the informed 20% - are ultimately the ones that do the choosing.

Answer 3

You can't, directly.  But you can challenge them when they start talking about things that they obviously don't understand.

"If we don't do something about the environment soon, we're going to destroy the earth!"

Your response:  Just how will we destroy the earth?  Did you know that it's been smacked by asteroids half the size of Manhattan, had volcanoes erupt that covered the entire Indian peninsula with several feet of ash, and had glaciers completely covering what is now Cleveland with hundreds of feet of ice?  It's still here, and so are we.  Tell me again what we're going to do to the environment that is so much worse than all that.

"If we don't stop all immigration now, we're going to be completely overrun by foreigners!"

Your response:  Oh, I didn't know your ancestry was all Native American.  (etc.)

An informed counter-argument is the best antidote to stupidity.

Answer 4

The returns on political knowledge are incredibly low--people are far more willing to spend thier time engaging in anything other than becoming politically informed (I like zombie movies).  Why are the returns so low?  Because an individual's vote has an infinitesimal chance of changing election outcomes.  If this is the case--there are virtually no costs for holding silly political opinions which are born by the individual.  Though the costs of bias to society, when tabulated in the voting booth, can be grave.

Answer 5

Back in my college days politics was a genuine debate.  Arguments won or last on their merits.  There was always point of view and spin, but facts and conclusions were not one and the same.

Today the 'debate' is shrillness and talking points.  The only persuasion is repetition (especially for the patently weak positions).  Is it any wonder they call Rush Limbaugh fans 'ditto heads'?  It's no longer enough to attack an idea, you must attack the person expressing the idea and attack any and all things associated with the person.  Ignoring fallacy is no longer option and we end up debating things not even open to debate, not with logic, but with loudness.

We have replaced discourse and critical thinking with ideology and truthiness.   No one spends energy finding the right answer any more, they spend their energy selling the answer they have.  So what you find to be uninformed kids are actually just what the spinmeisters wanted.

Answer 6

Look your friends right in the eye and ask how they came to that decision . Oh ya, don't let up and eventually only the informed will survive. The uninformed should be embarrassed enough to leave quietly.

Answer 7

it is a shame ignorance isn't painful

Answer 8

I know that none of them listen to a thing that Michelle Obama says, or considers the consequences of what Barack says.  

I find it hard to believe they do, and can still support these narcissistic, ungrateful people. Michelle Obama said, at a speech in Milwaukee this week, that "For the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country, not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change"

Is she for real. Here are a man and women in their 40s and they have never been proud of anything accomplished by this Country until Barack began winning primaries? What truly sad, empty, ungrateful and unthinking people they must be.

Evidently the Obamas believe that Barack invented "change" and only Barack believes what we should all believe. People who belatedly began going to a "christian" church that preaches hatred of "white" people. So-called Democrats who will not support Hillary Clinton if she is the candidate. So called Americans who have never been proud of any accomplishment of the United States until now. Is anyone listening to this hogwash?   What did Bush promise the American people>  Change from the status quo:  Unite America and not Divide it.  What are we hearing from Barack, more of the same regurgitated garbage.

Will people never learn.  Evidently, not if they are attending college.

Answer 9

You see stupidity when words are spoken. It  will happen for the rest of you life, and no amount of arguement will change that. Don't waste your breath.