gullibility

I'd reply, but without any knowledge whatsoever of the lies to which you refer I have no chance of making any informed answer!

I don't know what particular lies you have in mind, but yes, I have exactly the same thoughts many times recently, and was thinking the same again this evening when watching the news programmes!

It is a worry Morgana
I hear many people who make bold statements, with great confidence, which are easily shown to be utter nonsense when verifiable facts and figures are actually looked at!

Swayed by what/ whom?
Who in society do you perceive to be gullable?

Rather a vague post Morgana , perhaps if you would like to be a bit more specific, you might get some informed and considered responses.

There is no doubt that some people are guillible and will believe the lies of brexit propagandists, and even repeat the cliches and mantras rather than apply their own common sense.

These people who are so guillible will not pay any heed to hard evidence or expert opinion, which can easily be dismissed as "project fear".

These people, who might each be simple, well meaning folk, are, because of their guillibility, highly dangerous in a democracy.

varian perhaps simple, gullible folk should not be allowed to vote at all.
Perhaps only those who know what's best for others should be given the franchise.
Perhaps introduce eugenics - that should solve the problem once and for all.

Is there a gullibility test?

Bit of a pointless thread really.
I spend my life being struck by things. (Not literally, thankfully)
The point is....?

I suppose "gullible" tends to mean people who believe what I don't believe - and those "gullible" people would probably describe me in similar terms.

Eloethan

Are you referring to anyone or anything specifically Morgana?

Marx said that religion was the opiate of the people - you could substitute that now for television.

Morgana
That's assuming that your view is the only one.

The word ‘gullible’ has been removed from the OED I’m told. ?

I was thinking today that nearly everything we've been hearing or reading about Brexit is hypothetical (I had to look up that word, hpo- means below.)Very few real facts, if any.
So those who make the theories are just as unsure as we who read them, politicians like to make out they know it all.
There are few known facts as it's all untrodden ground.
The result is a feeling of insecurity, so we clutch onto straws.

I don't know what the OP had in mind, but who else heard TM say last night outside 10 Downing St that we should prepare to leave Europe 'as instructed by the people' [i.e the referendum]? Was that the truth? I understood the referendum to be advisory. Would we expect the Prime Minister to know that? Esp not make a wrong implication in a carefully prepared and read out statement.
Or think back to 2016. Mr Gove was confident in asserting that GB would 'hold all the cards' in negotiating to leave the EU'. Has he retracted that? Many people said it was pie in the sky at the time, yet others accepted it as the truth.

I didn't specifically mean Brexit - although it does apply to that of course, but I have had people say to me this week (and with all sincerity):

* We don't need to worry about paying for HS2 as the Chinese are paying for it
* If JC becomes PM. I shall lose my house because we will be a Communist state.

Just two of many! Made by lovely people, but I just wonder at their gullibility.

What I find REALLY disturbing is the way televison reporters have stopped being factual and neutral, but now TELL us what is happening and put their own biased spin on events.

The lack of neutrality IS a worry. Trump keeps banging on about 'fake news' but he is right.

It is so easy to spread propaganda and lies via the media now. And yes, you overhear alarmist talk when standing in queues etc. People are swallowing whichever version of an event they hear or read first.

An interesting article on this topic-

"Media impartiality is a problem when ignorance is given the same weight as expertise"

www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2018/03/media-impartiality-problem-when-ignorance-given-same-weight-expertise

Day6 There is an important difference between fake news and news reporting with a political bias. The former is something fictional, made up and untrue. The latter inevitably occurs in pretty much all media; the facts are facts, but may well be selective and any additional opinions are, of course, just opinions.

Trump keeps banging on about 'fake news' but he is right.

But Trump calls the truth 'fake news' How can he be 'right'?

The dismissal of the voice of "experts" in favour of vox popularis and celebrity journalists, often with vested interests in issues they write/ report about, creates a very poor quality standard of communication.

I think if the referendum was "advisory" then that fact should have been made very clear.

I voted to remain but I do wonder - if the remain vote had won by a small margin, would remainers think it acceptable for leavers to try and overturn the decision on the grounds that the referendum was only advisory.

Personally, I wish we'd never had the referendum as it has caused so much bad feeling and also a great deal of anxiety. I don't think we'll be any better off on our own - and might be worse off. In my opinion, whether we're in or out of the EU, if we have a rotten government (which I believe we have), things won't improve. I don't believe the EU is responsible for the unholy mess we're in now.