One of the things I find most fascinating about the internet, is people’s confidence in what they are stating. It doesn’t matter how inaccurate it might be, they just post it or blurt it out. Every day, I see folks post information which they have no knowledge or expertise in but there is out there on social media. I believe the reason for a lot of this bullshit is “confidence vs competence”.
Confidence is the self-belief in your abilities, while competence is the actual, demonstrable skill or knowledge to perform a task. Confidence gets you noticed and represents your presentation, while competence ensures you can deliver results. Ideally, both are balanced, but they are often confused, as people frequently mistake charisma for expertise.
I must see ten post a day of people who claim the earth is flat, the moon landings were fake, earth is going to lose gravity for 7 seconds in August and of course non-existent mass voter fraud. They seem very confident in their beliefs, their claims are full of innuendo, made up charts or data from like-minded people and claim them all as facts. All of it laced with their confidence. I often wonder if these folks understand how many people would have to be involved in these conspiracies to keep them moving along. Their complete lack of knowledge or critical thinking is stunning in most cases.
Most of the so-called experts in this world, Joe Rogan, Glenn Beck, Anderson Cooper and Tim Pool are not experts on any topic, they are just entertainers pushing a narrative. It’s amazing to me that a guy like Joe Rogan, an ex actor, MMA fighter are folks subject matter expert on everything. Makes my head hurt!
I was discussing the marvels of science with someone the other day and trying to get them to understand the importance of science. I mentioned how life expectancy in 1850 was 40 years old and now it’s 77. Know what did that? SCIENCE! She started quoting the bible and telling me I’m woke. So much confidence and absolutely no competence. I just dropped my head and went to the driving range.
Facts matter, science matters, education matters. It seems glaringly apparent to me that there are folks from all sides of the political and social world need a goddamn education on civics, politics economics and science because some of the things I see posted daily are just plain inaccurate! It’s nice that you have this confidence to post and say this stuff, but you really need help with your competence!