-100
Being contrarian just for the sake of being contrarian doesn’t make one interesting
Edit: I gotta look at usernames before I comment
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
-100 points (12.7% liked)
Showerthoughts
30081 readers
1234 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Avoid politics
- 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
- 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
- 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
A contrarian isn’t one who always objects — that’s a confirmist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently, from the ground up, and resists pressure to conform.
- Naval Ravikant
Contrarianism in a nutshell.
You're not smart, you're just a hipster.
Things I must be wrong about because everyone agrees:
Flapping my arms won't cause me to fly.
I can't breathe underwater.
Washing hands prevents disease.
Eating food gives us energy.
Yesterday was Christmas.
If only everyone was as smart as you. 🙄
The opposite doesn't mean you're right either.
If I was to say "the sky is blue" and everyone agrees with me, it's actually because the sky is fucking blue.
I don't know how you came to such a wildly bad conclusion. There are other caveats needed to make what you said even remotely accurate. Like if you're a billionaire and everyone always agrees with you, you're probably wrong most of the time.
There are exceptions of course. And maybe that's one of them. Or maybe it isn't.
Sometimes most people are right. Sometimes most people are wrong. Come to your own conclusions as independently as possible from what other people think. It's just as much a fallacy to assume the majority of people are wrong as to assume they are right.
And some things aren't even objectively true or false, they are just personal preferences or morals.
This is a little concept known as conformity, and it's a pretty big and interesting part of sociology
It depends vastly on the subject, audience and source of information.
I’m not going to disagree with a room of experts aligned on a conclusion based on data and verified study. Actual knowledge is in fact knowledge and a contrarian opinion, no matter how passionately expressed, is not equivalent to it.
Being contrarian solely to go against the popular position is laughably simplistic.
Everyone knows this.
(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞
People who don't understand science don't get this. When science changes it doesn't mean the previous ideas were "wrong" - it usually just means that the framework and the data it is built around was incomplete or imprecise. That's the entire premise of empiricism, and why there are differences between how theory, fact and axiom are handled.
Far too many people believe that the history of overturned consensus suggests that modern consensus is also "wrong" when it was the empiricist framework which discovered both "truths" in the first place.
Most people think the letter "A" is the first letter of the English alphabet.
Few people know that runes were first
You mean Cuneiform.
Not in the anglosphere
Assuming the English alphabet, A is the first letter.
We all agree with you!
Most people agree that puppies and kittens are cute.
That’s just Big Cute propaganda. The puppy-kitten industrial complex has brainwashed us all. Have you even considered that tarantulas and anglerfish might be the true standard of cuteness?
Not even once.
Based on the downvotes, you must think this was a good take lmao
For unpopular opinion maybe
It's expected. It's the 2 or 3 thoughtful responses that I'm looking for.
Must be hard to come around math, science and in general facts for you. We all agree on how it works, so it must be wrong?
That's a special case.
Most of popular thought is not that.
Do you always frame your assertions as questions?
Only if I ask for an answer.
Critical thinking skills are required, to really know if you're right or wrong. Just going by what is common and doing the opposite, or doing what is common, is not enough.
The entire scientific method is designed so that people can verify if they are wrong or right, through falsifiable hypotheses, simply debating and using rhetoric to try to decide truth often leads to incorrect conclusions, if not outright falsehoods. However, the burden of proof is on the person with the new theory, not everybody else to prove the new theory is wrong
Such careful thinking, such scientificness, is rare as hen's teeth.
It's the only way to be sure you are correct or not.
I think you're confusing a few things here, but that's ok. After all, it's a shower thought, not a thesis.
Whether people agree or disagree with you is not a good indication of you being right or wrong. it could be either way in both cases.
When people think the same way as you do, they tend to agree with you. They might think that way, because you're really convincing or because they see the world the same way you do. In either case, you could still be right or wrong.
It's also possible that people appear to agree with you even though they don't actually think like you do. See dictatorships for more info on that situation. As usual, this has nothing to with who is right and who is wrong.
Regardless, you touched upon an important point. Humans are social animals, and tribalism causes all sorts of weird behavior, such as rejecting your own conclusions and going with the flow. In a hunter gatherer society, your life literally depends on the group, so you better stick together. In a modern society, we still need each other, but more indirectly.
If everyone agrees with you, take that as a warning sign that they might be acting on tribal instincts. Act responsibly, because your decisions could affect the people around you.
I'm a Yakuza game series fan, so, a guy who I know asked me what do I think about the live action series of Amazon Prime. I said that isn't going to get the same reception as other live action series, so this mf agreed with me with no hesitation. I got mad, no because he was trying to "giving me the reason" but he was trying to lick my boots.