How gullible is the "average" person?

I believe everything I read.
I know that we live in The matrix on a flat earth which is ran by JFK who didn't get assassinated and is a member of the Illuminati who have control of everything right around the world. The royale family are alien lizards who killed off a princess because she lied about who the father of the current kings second child was and are now hiding another member of the family from public view.
Elvis didn't die and is living as a recluse or on a Caribbean island but Paul McCartney did die and was replaced by faux McCartney.
COVID was a made up illness that was sprayed on everyone by plane exhaust fumes but also very dangerous and was created by JFK and well known banker families so they could make loads of money on vaccines that cured people from COVID but also made people ill, the same bunch of blokes convinced the world that natural medication was bad and pharmaceutical medications are good.
The moons landing where fake and so was the Challenger disaster.
When I see a picture online that has a title of something along the lines of turn this photo upside down I do it repeatedly but nothing ever happens. When A random phone number rings me and says that I need to pay tax money so the FBI don't arrest me and that the computer I don't have has a virus I instantly give all my personal information out over the phone along with my bank details and passwords. Not to mention the emails that some poor bloke found a £1m diamond but needed £2000 to pay for legal fees to claim it and I will get half which I thought was an offer I couldn't refuse but while I'm waiting for that I found A self help course on how to get rich quick all I had to do was send £100 and they would show me how funny enough I never heard anything back from them yet either.
 
Nano said:
You also have to look at the other side though and realise that not everyone that votes differently to you does it because they are thick, racist, selfish or gullible. There is not always a right or wrong answer. There are things you prioritise above other things that other people don't and different people can come to different decisions with the same information. Believing that is just as gullible as them believing the things they do.
Click to expand...
That doesn't really have any resemblance to what I said. I stated that the idea that europe, immigrants and single mothers are the route of all our problems and that certain manifestos claim that they will solve this (despite not solving them in the previous 2 elections). If people choose Tory for other reasons, that's a different point. My point was that a large swathe of the population bought into this nonsense and are still buying into it. That doesn't make me gullible in any way shape or form, stop with the false equivalences
Nano said:
Too many people think their decision is right and they have to have a reason for everyone else making different decisions to them without stepping back and wondering if maybe the alternative view has some merits.
Click to expand...
I'm still waiting for the brexit merits, all data suggests it was an act of self harm.

I'm still waiting for austerity to create a better britain with a better financial footing.....all data states that we have more debt and worse services to boot.

I'm still waiting for crack down on illegal immigrants to solve the NHS waiting lists.....all evidence is that no effort to stop illegal immigration has been successful or improved failing NHS waiting lists

etc. etc.

Austerity, brexit, fighting illegal immigration, blaming single mothers as the cause of our issues.....My view is that none of this led to an improvement in our economy, happiness, serivces, or national psyche. There is plenty of data to back up that I am right in my view. There are no merits in continuing down that path, with a vote for Reform, it's just the same failed and to be honest manipulative and dishonest ideology as we've had from the Tories for 14 years... small state, **** services, blame foreigners, deflect from the real issues, allow businesses and multi-millionaires more access to the levers of power, treat people like dirt to be manipulated for the wealth of the few. I'm happy to ridicule people that go down that continued route, who was it that said the sign of insanity is doing the same things and expecting a different result.
 
Last edited:
BoroMart said:
That doesn't really have any resemblance to what I said. I stated that the idea that europe, immigrants and single mothers are the route of all our problems and that certain manifestos claim that they will solve this (despite not solving them in the previous 2 elections). If people choose Tory for other reasons, that's a different point. My point was that a large swathe of the population bought into this nonsense and are still buying into it. That doesn't make me gullible in any way shape or form, stop with the false equivalences

I'm still waiting for the brexit merits, all data suggests it was an act of self harm.

I'm still waiting for austerity to create a better britain with a better financial footing.....all data states that we have more debt and worse services to boot.

I'm still waiting for crack down on illegal immigrants to solve the NHS waiting lists.....all evidence is that no effort to stop illegal immigration has been successful or improved failing NHS waiting lists

etc. etc.

Austerity, brexit, fighting illegal immigration, blaming single mothers as the cause of our issues.....My view is that none of this led to an improvement in our economy, happiness, serivces, or national psyche. There is plenty of data to back up that I am right in my view. There are no merits in continuing down that path, with a vote for Reform, it's just the same failed and to be honest manipulative and dishonest ideology as we've had from the Tories for 14 years... small state, **** services, blame foreigners, deflect from the real issues, allow businesses and multi-millionaires more access to the levers of power, treat people like dirt to be manipulated for the wealth of the few. I'm happy to ridicule people that go down that continued route, who was it that said the sign of insanity is doing the same things and expecting a different result.
Click to expand...
I wasn't questioning your specific reasons for voting for whatever. I'm saying that the opposing views to yours think the same way about you and the choices you make. They think you are gullible and a fool for believing any of it. Choices are often binary but the reasons for falling on one side of the other aren't and assuming that everyone voted for something when there are very few options on our voting cards isn't useful. I disagree with a huge amount of things the Tories say and do but they have some policies that I do agree with and I'm not going to dismiss those policies because they are Tory policy and agreeing with some of their policies doesn't make me a Tory or gullible or selfish or a racist etc. There will be lots of actual Tory voters in a similar situation that believe in economic conservatism but not necessarily social conservatism or vice versa. If the economy is the thing they prioritise the most then all of the other things they might not agree with but voting Tory is their only way of ensuring the type of economic management they agree with. Same as I will probably vote for Starmer's Labour even though I massively disagree with the way he is positioning them but the things that are most important to me are better off with a Labour government than a Tory government.

Re: Brexit. This is a great example where there were huge amounts of people that were 50:50 on the decision that now get lumped in to an all or nothing binary position. There were lots of people that voted Brexit and could have easily voted remain but there were also lots of people that voted remain and could have easily voted brexit. Assuming that all 48% of remainers were as adamant that remain was the right choice as yourself is wrong. As was assuming all 52% of brexiteers were gullible racists.
Thinking brexit is all one thing and being unable to debate the individual points of it is a big reason Brexit won. People voted for brexit even if they didn't agree with it 100%, same as remain. There were things the brexiteers wanted that used to be perfectly acceptable discussion points, such as controls on immigration, that got people entrenched on a binary all things brexit = good or bad. At the election before brexit Ed Milliband had Controls on Immigration as one of the pledges on his stone which shows it was something that was important to people and there were choices other than brexit for solving that. Turning it into a immigration is good/bad debate led to brexit winning and then not being able to implement anything without an all or nothing position because nobody would move on meant we ended up with the most extreme tory version of brexit. Not being able to understand that immigration isn't good or bad because immigration isn't a single thing and each person within the entire system has different reasons why they think immigration is good or bad doesn't help anyone. It allows the argument to be debated by the extremes when the majority of people are somewhere in the middle.

I agree with you on most things in your list but shouting, ridiculing, blaming and marginalising people that don't share all your views only leads to people moving away and seeking shelter in their own echo chambers. As the old saying goes you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

BoroMart said:
I'm happy to ridicule people that go down that continued route, who was it that said the sign of insanity is doing the same things and expecting a different result.
Click to expand...
It wasn't Einstein but there are enough people that are gullible enough to believe it was...
 
Nano said:
Re: Brexit. This is a great example where there were huge amounts of people that were 50:50 on the decision that now get lumped in to an all or nothing binary position. There were lots of people that voted Brexit and could have easily voted remain but there were also lots of people that voted remain and could have easily voted brexit. Assuming that all 48% of remainers were as adamant that remain was the right choice as yourself is wrong. As was assuming all 52% of brexiteers were gullible racists.
Thinking brexit is all one thing and being unable to debate the individual points of it is a big reason Brexit won. People voted for brexit even if they didn't agree with it 100%, same as remain. There were things the brexiteers wanted that used to be perfectly acceptable discussion points, such as controls on immigration, that got people entrenched on a binary all things brexit = good or bad. At the election before brexit Ed Milliband had Controls on Immigration as one of the pledges on his stone which shows it was something that was important to people and there were choices other than brexit for solving that. Turning it into a immigration is good/bad debate led to brexit winning and then not being able to implement anything without an all or nothing position because nobody would move on meant we ended up with the most extreme tory version of brexit. Not being able to understand that immigration isn't good or bad because immigration isn't a single thing and each person within the entire system has different reasons why they think immigration is good or bad doesn't help anyone. It allows the argument to be debated by the extremes when the majority of people are somewhere in the middle.
Click to expand...
I agree to some extent but people are probably not gullible as such, but lazy.

It's easily provable that the £350m figure was wrong and you're lazy if you don't check that. You're guilty of being gullible if you then believed that would go towards the NHS instead.
 
Nano said:
I'm saying that the opposing views to yours think the same way about you and the choices you make.
Click to expand...
All views are not equal and I refuse to treat them as such. That's the problem with the internet, a harvard professor and someone with 2 GCSEs have an equal voice and equal audience.

And no, I'm not calling myself a Harvard professor, but I'm a lot closer to that end of the scale on social sciences, politics and systems of governance than the opposite end.

Nano said:
They think you are gullible and a fool for believing any of it.
Click to expand...
'Their' points are moot, if they think that 14 years of austerity has led to a better economy, if they think that immigration is the cause of all our issues, if they think that brexit has worked then they lack the critical thinking to have a proper debate on the subject. Awareness and belief of their own thoughts is really an irrelevance, everyone has the right to their views, but without critical thinking, evidence based feedback loop analysis, they're just emotive word-farts. I value data, information, knowledge and wisdom way way above feelings which are much easier to manipulate.
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
I agree to some extent but people are probably not gullible as such, but lazy.

It's easily provable that the £350m figure was wrong and you're lazy if you don't check that. You're guilty of being gullible if you then believed that would go towards the NHS instead.
Click to expand...
That's true. You'd also have to be gullible to think that anyone voted for brexit because of that bus and yet people are still talking about it 8 years on.
 
Frozen Horse said:
He did want to smash the league.

He never promised that we would; the belief that he did led to accusations of lying
Click to expand...
Gibson is an easy target in this case as the 'smash the league' became the headline, which I imagine he wanted it to be, to encourage supporters to stay with the club.

However, during the interview he also said something along the lines that we were in the best position to do this of any club in the division. He also said that he would ensure that we brought in experienced players during the summer and we signed 100CL and DDC.
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
I know people who said they did. Am I gullible for believing them?
Click to expand...
Yes, I think so. The bus was called out as false before the referendum vote. It didn't come to light after the event. It was immediate. Even if people believed it on first seeing it there was constant coverage about it afterwards and the chances they based their entire decision solely on what was written on the bus, even after knowing it was not factually correct, seems like it is more likely that they are winding you up.
 
Nano said:
Yes, I think so. The bus was called out as false before the referendum vote. It didn't come to light after the event. It was immediate. Even if people believed it on first seeing it there was constant coverage about it afterwards and the chances they based their entire decision solely on what was written on the bus, even after knowing it was not factually correct, seems like it is more likely that they are winding you up.
Click to expand...
Boris Johnson was proven to be a liar many times before the general election.

He was proven to have lied to parliament.

People still believed him. I think you're vastly overestimating the intelligence of your average daily mail reading tory voter.

Even then it was only the figure on the bus that was proven to be incorrect.

The more important implied lie (that was the whole point of what was on the bus) was we were sending money to bloody foreigners for no reason that we could (and would) otherwise be spending on ourselves.

Many brexit voters won't only have believed that, I suspect they'll have been frothing at the mouth and bursting blood vessels about it.
 
Nano said:
There will be lots of actual Tory voters in a similar situation that believe in economic conservatism but not necessarily social conservatism or vice versa......If the economy is the thing they prioritise the most then all of the other things they might not agree with but voting Tory is their only way of ensuring the type of economic management they agree with.
Click to expand...
They haven't been economically conservative though, they're libertarians, trashing social systems, selling off state assets corruptly and without any strategic plan to pick up the pieces of the negative impact on society.

Can you honestly stand there and say this 14 year Tory austerity has reduced the national debt which is what they claimed they were going to do? That it's generated wealth across the country, improved our economy? We have a cost of living crisis, fuel poverty, 30% of kids in relative poverty, high inflation, low growth, imports and exports reduced, none of that is economic conservatism, its economic anarchy.

The belief that a) voting Tory guaranteed economic conservatism, or b) that voting Tory is the only way to ensure good financial governance, well this is exactly the point I originally made about gullibility, because it hasn't guaranteed your economic conservatism, yet still I'm hearing that line from someone who believes that is true.

Those are the facts.

If we want to talk about beliefs, then its my belief that economic conservatives understand the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Investment is important, social systems are important, the best growth figures this country has ever had, was...........<drum roll>..........under 'new labour'. This 14 year ideology has taken petrol and a torch to our country. 52% of the country were gullible to think brexit would be great, about 41% of the country were gullible to think the tories had their interests at heart and would grow the economy and reduce the debt.
 
Last edited:
Nano said:
That's true. You'd also have to be gullible to think that anyone voted for brexit because of that bus and yet people are still talking about it 8 years on.
Click to expand...
In which case, why did people repeatedly spout it at the time, clearly some people did think, don't pay 350m a week into the EU = £350m more into the NHS.

If that isn't the case, then clearly the brexit campaign and it's media backers were approaching the biggest economic decision the people in this country has ever faced with utter dishonesty.....which is true.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top