The Social Construction Of Reality.

I learned about this phenomenon in an intro to sociology class in college in 1988. It's called the social construction of reality. Or just social constructionism now. And it makes normal people, sometimes very rational people, think irrationally. It may even make them seem very low in intelligence. Or insane. The Supreme Court has even said, it can be the difference between a delusion and reality even. For people of the same age, class and education sometimes, they said. And the point is sometimes your culture puts moral pressure on you to have them. To even do mental gymnastics to prove them to yourself. No matter what evidence you're given.

For example, if you were brought up in a church that taught the world was flat, and you were going to hell if you even stopped believing that, that could influence the rest of your life. The moon landing must have been fake. We've never been to Jupiter or Mars, because they don't exist. Then it could get more ridiculous still. "Why was I able to take a plane around the world last Spring?" you'd ask yourself, if the world isn't flat. Well, you'd tell yourself. The Devil must have put me in a trance. I was never really on the plane. And so forth.

The social construction of reality and how affects people's judgement and actions. Any thoughts?

 

Humans are so gullible. They also want desperately to be part of some social group. Usually the one the were raised in.

To be confronted with real truth is too much cognitive dissonance for them to handle. Plus acknowledging the truth would mean they've been lied to, and worse, they can no longer be part of that subculture.

So that's why Republicans are taking so long to wake up to what a nightmare Trump is.

 

The skepticism of Descartes that led to his Cartesian Objectivism should have defused this dynamic. But it failed. Then the hippies came along with the desire to question everything. Now the baby boomers are some of the worst victims of Social Construction.