LOSING CRITICAL THINKING

Wonderful. One says: “I’m not!” That’s critical thinking! Now we are living in a world where questioning might make us dangerous, and silence us virtuous. The cage was built in plain sight and we locked the door ourselves. Trying talking to people with opposing view points, some could get back just with slogans, talking points in verbatim repetitions, tribal protectionism, being interrupted, even being talked over. No matter how much proof was tried to present to support certain views, they were dismissed. This act was ridiculed instead. Some of the given dismissive devices were the bandwagon fallacy, the straw man fallacy, the appeal to authority. At last, some guys were unable to get through, so they walked away. They have managed to become comfortable to stand alone and not be part of the group.

Life is full of paradoxes. We scroll, we react, we rage… but do we ever actually think! When people agree completely on what social media dictates, they are becoming stupid! We are deliberately giving up our freedom or being diabolically suppressed. Messages coming from a machine, trying to copy humans have been being proclaimed a wise person. With AI program writes the code; with a program a person writes the code. Who is wiser than whom?

No matter which issue anyone speaks out and questions, most of their narratives are immediately cancelled and isolated. Most people today have no real idea of  what is going on. Sometimes they really feel mad as they may go on. It’s not difficult to see that we have so long witnessed how social media gave rise to collective stupidity among our young people. Many are struggling to simply survive even though there isn’t enough time or energy in the day. They make no time to contemplate on provocative intangible concepts. It is, for instance, after a 9-hour work day, they will cook dinner in getting the kids ready for bed. They go deprived of sleep and completely exhausted by the time. No time comes for themselves to do things like reading and making questions.That’s the point! We are living in an age of clickbait and shallow outrage in a hellscape of absurdity.

It must be that our personal responsibility is to ignore, challenge, or actually disobey illegal or immoral orders. The absence of critical thinking was not accidental but has been being directed by manipulated mass media. Man has been controlled to prefer conformity and fitting into the crowd for centuries since the birth of printing press. This is why everyone, everywhere, mindlessly follows traditions, conventions, ideologies, religions, social norms, even obedience. Critical thinking is flourished by a strong bond with truth. The latter is brainwashed, so does the former. Modern media can make us dumber if we accept it. Only truth can help you whether accept or not. How is truth coming when being distorted!

DIFFICULT WORD USAGE

1. Hocus pocus, a situation where something seemingly magical occurs, Nobody likes this statesman because of his hocus pocus that he usually uses to obscure the social issues. Most of advertisers use hocus pocus to sell a product.
2. Legerdemain, describe both the skillful, deceptive movements for any deception or trickery. Without legerdemain none can become a magician. A politician knows how to trick voters with legerdemain.
3. Skulduggery, dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behavior. In any election there might be a politician using skulduggery in cheating voters as a CEO gets used to hiding up financial losses, or engaging in bribery and graft.
4. Shenanigans, describe playful pranks often in an amusing or interesting way. Children really like engaging in shenaigans at school or home. Some office staffs are well skilled in using deceitful shenanigans to gain an advantage.
5. Tomfoolery, a form of silly, playful, and noisy behavior annoying but usually not serious. A group of friends are playfully having tomfoolery by throwing water balloons. A teacher is one who gets used to the scenes in which students are giggling and making silly tomfoolery in a classroom.
6. Monkeyshines, the act or fact of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth. In Tacoma, Washington on the annual Lunar New Year hidden glass orbs as moneyshines are scattered throughout the city for the public to find, bringing unexpected joy and community engagement.
7. Cozenage, deceiving, cheating, or tricking someone in a clever or skillful way. Email users have been so familiar to such cozenages of revealing personal information through phishing. Unwary investors can be put in cozenage and flattery to sell their treasures for a pittance.
8. Skylarking, frivolous or lighthearted behavior. Children running and frolicking playfully in a meadow on a sunny day is a type of skylarking. We can see skylarking in camping site, where friends are joking, laughing, and goofing around at a picnic.
9. Buffoonery, behavior characterized by clowning around and foolishness. A comedian is slipping on a banana peel to elicit laughter from the audience as a buffoonery. Somebody are engaging in buffoonery to attract media attention.
10. Slapstick, the quality, fact or aspect of being amusing or funny. Inept use of saws and ladders might make a slapstick scene. In public a slapstick could attract others to see someone’s show-off.