What are zombie ideas and how they prevent us from living

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Some of these "walking corpses" are quite harmless and can only make fun of, others are really dangerous, but they can be rendered harmless.

The earth is flat. Men are smarter than women. The stars can predict the fate of a person. Vaccinations cause autism. All these statements have long been debunked, “killed and buried”, but they again and again “rise from the graves” and continue to live in human minds. And they often act destructively on us. Understanding what zombie ideas are and where they come from.

What are zombie ideas

This is how the American professor of economics, Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman called ideas, theories, beliefs and concepts that are still more alive than all living things, although official science, life experience and common sense have repeatedly smashed them to smithereens. There are unimaginably many such "walking dead", and they are found in almost all areas of knowledge and spheres of life. Here are just a few examples:

• Medicine. Vaccination leads to autism. Homeopathy heals. If you eat ice cream, you will get the flu, and if you go without a hat, you will get meningitis. When sick, you need to take antibiotics.
• Nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. Diets help you lose weight. You need to drink eight glasses of water a day and walk 10,000 steps.
• Gender roles. Associated with them is a whole freak show of concepts about male and female destiny, different levels of intelligence, predisposition to certain professions and hobbies, about rigidly fixed family roles. Men don't knit and women don't program. The husband is the head, and the woman is the neck. And stuff like that.
• World structure. The earth is flat. The pyramids were built by giants or aliens. Hedgehogs carry apples on their backs. Before, all people were healthy, strong and moral. Climate change does not exist. No one has ever flown to the moon.
• Esoterics. All kinds of divination, astrology, chiropractic, torsion fields, subtle bodies, NLP, higher energies, karma, reincarnation, telepathy - that's all.
• Upbringing. Children need to be raised in severity, or, conversely, everything should be allowed. It's too late to bring up after three. The baby needs to be swaddled tightly and a hat should be put on, even in summer. God gave a bunny, and he will give a lawn. For a normal upbringing, no special knowledge, skills and resources are needed - "I was raised somehow, and nothing."
• Psychology. We only use the brain 10%. If a person looks to the left, he is lying; if he interlaces his arms over his chest, he defends himself. Going to a psychologist or psychiatrist is embarrassing. Complaining and washing dirty linen in public is bad.
• Social relationships. People of one race are dumber or worse than the other. All the elderly are blinkered and conservative, and the young are frivolous. People with disabilities should be isolated. The people for the most part are quite unreasonable, and they need a tough and authoritarian leader.
• "Worldly wisdom" and harmful attitudes. All men are goats. We didn’t live well, there’s nothing to start. Needed where was born. And stuff like that.

Why zombie ideas are still alive

They make the world clearer

Zombie ideas explain the inexplicable and give some kind of coordinate system in this complex and incomprehensible world. It is much easier to make decisions when someone has determined long before you what your purpose is, with which signs of the zodiac you better not start a relationship and how you need to raise your children. There is no need to waste resources on doubts, reflections, choice and search for information.

We lack knowledge and critical thinking skills

You can have as many scraps as you like about higher education and at the same time be "treated" with homeopathy, go to fortune-tellers and believe that the Americans are to blame for all our troubles. Simply because it is much easier to repeat a false statement that has been erased to holes after someone than to carry out at least a minimal fact-check on your own. And also because there are still a lot of gullible people in the world.

Biologist and popularizer of science Alexander Panchin believes that it is precisely the unwillingness to check facts and the search for simple solutions that is the main reason why delusions are formed and live.

It's easier for us not to "fight back" from society

Here, of course, a lot depends on the environment of a particular person. If all acquaintances “drown” for evidence-based medicine, it will not be very convenient to sing about corrupt doctors and non-existent HIV. But when everyone around everyone believes in horoscopes, "bunnies with lawns", a good king and bad boyars, the healing power of soda, urine and milk thistle, it takes courage to openly call all this game.

There is an opinion that the thoughtless retelling of all sorts of tales like fake news and hackneyed "facts" serves for a person as an analogue of grooming, with the help of which monkeys earn the sympathy of their fellow tribesmen, that is, a way of social interaction.

We are predisposed to magical thinking

In other words, to the belief that there are some invisible forces that we can influence if we perform certain actions. Therefore, we willingly believe in witchcraft, astrology, subtle energies and similar near-magic things, especially in a state of stress and uncertainty.

We are influenced by propaganda

No, not political, although she too. It's more about spreading obscurantism, fakes and false teachings. Usually adherents of anti-vaccination movement, female destiny, herbal medicine and other "truths" like to put pressure on emotions, tell amazing stories, dramatically raise their voices and "shout" exclamation marks, manipulate facts, generalize, intentionally or unconsciously make incorrect comparisons.

Screenshot: "VKontakte"

Screenshot: "VKontakte"

Screenshot: "VKontakte"

Someone recognizes all these polemical tricks in no time, while someone, alas, is being carried on, and then used by himself.

We don't trust science

Well, there are some bearded uncles, probably bought, who tell something there. But they are somewhere far away, it is not clear to believe them or not.

And the dear grandfather, who says that there was no crime before, and the children were already dressing themselves, going to the nursery and reading poetry from the stool - here he is, next to him. As well as a colleague from work who lost weight on a kefir diet. Naturally, it is calmer to believe them.

Why zombie ideas are dangerous

Among them there are simply stupid and harmless ones. Well, a person believes that space looks like in science fiction films, and that chewing gum remains in the stomach for seven years - in principle, it's okay. Unless, of course, he is an astrophysicist or a doctor.

But there are "zombies" that can seriously harm. For example, kill us because we were not vaccinated or "treated" with sugar balls instead of going to a real doctor. Or prevent us from building a happy relationship, because we believe that men are goats, and a woman's place is in the kitchen. Or provoke hostility and discrimination, inflict psychological trauma on your child, and prevent them from building a career.

How to kill zombie ideas

Unfortunately, neither a headshot, nor a chainsaw, nor napalm, nor other methods from zombie films will help here. Scientists have been fighting these "dead" for a long time, but they still "resurrect". And they will always rise again, because this is how our brain and our society are arranged.

But zombie ideas can be weakened a little, and the main weapon for this is to be curious. Read more scientific and popular science materials, question any information, do not listen to those who appeal only to emotions and do not support their words with facts. And not to be afraid to say loudly that some idea has long died and "rotten", and there is no point in repeating it.