When using material analysis the contradictions of capital become obvious. Anyone who is grounded in reality can understand the problem. The unfortunate part however is that very few people are actually living in reality. The vast majority have "magical thinking", this commonly manifests in religious delusions but it can take on many other forms.
Examples would be unproven conspiracy theories (eg flat earth), counter-productive diet advice (eg raw milk), or even believing common myths.
I think all humans have a tendency towards irrationality and in order to avoid magical thinking you must have self-awareness. The kind of self-awareness that makes you constantly question yourself and your beliefs and seek out counter-arguments out of your own volition. This is the most important part.
Every single bad idea that sticks around despite being disproved relies on this thought process to become immortal. I'll use a creationist as an example. Here's the sample thought process.
>The bible is true
>Evolution must be false
>"ChatGPT give me arguments against evolution"
This hypothetical person starts off with a conclusion and researches backwards in order to justify it. When you're using this lens to form an argument you will never find the truth no matter how much evidence you are shown.
This is basically just a drawn out way of saying the average person is insanely stupid. How do we re-educate the masses?
wow and here i thought the #1 problem was capitalism, silly me
magical thinking makes us humans, rational thinking makes us automatons and slaves. thinking that your retarded sexual fetish is valid, but some moronic religious ritual is too far is nothing but hypocrisy.
One of the biggest hurdles facing anybody who seeks to overcome idealism is that even one who is grounded in materialism still needs a bit of magical thinking to get through the day. We call that hope. Communism itself is a dream, even if it is grounded in material science. It is a hope that seems very reasonable, rational, certainly possible even with our current level of technology. The problem is, nothing can guarantee that it will ever happen, and even if we could guarantee it, we, and many who come after us, may have to starwartly face a cruel reality that says we will never see it in our lifetimes.
Of course, none of this is reason to advocate for idealism. It is only to say that the kind of courage needed to accept the realities of a cold hard world is simply asking too much from the average person. The world is too big. To try and take it all in is to lose oneself in it, so we retreat back into a mind where only we, and the gentle pictures that comfort us exist.
Unfortunately, most of us stop here. We are unable to comprehend or identify a solid sense of being and self within a world that renders that self invisible, like the disappearance of a drop within the vast ocean. Some people retreat into fantasy, others go mad and seek to impose their will on others by force, believing that they can command reality, instead of being commanded by it, as reason reliably points to. These are the attempts of a child clinging to something they are afraid of losing. However, once that thing is lost, only then can we begin to learn how to live without it, and in time we realize that we never really knew why it was so important to us. Losing the self and watching it float away means getting to know the world that surrounded it. The world that once felt terrifying, subsuming, incomprehensible is now like so much empty space.
Now you don't need to try to take everything in at once. Everything simply is. You don't need to try and understand, you just observe. There is no self vs other to grapple with, because there is no separation. Only then can you begin to see things as they really are.
> "Magical thinking" is the number 1 problem in the world
Yes, like "global revolution leading to global communism"
>How do we re-educate the masses?
Gulags.
They worked for Stalin.
With gulags Stalin industrialised Russia, won WW2 and split the atom.
>>2927644>"magical thinking" is the number 1 problemridiculous, this is simply your redditard atheism fetish speaking, the number 1 problem is capitalism. Besides that, religion is incredibly useful. You can easily use the bible to convince people to become communists, that is supposing they can be bothered to read it and are not american "christians".
Op you should read a book called elementary principles of philosophy
>>2927648Hypocrisy is the natural state of consciousness, allowed for me but not for thee is basic thinking
>>2927648>everyone who disagrees with me burns in hell forever and there's no use changing the mode of production because jesus is going to come back and save us allis a bit further than
>i am gay and dont want to start a nuclear family