Do you ever worry that some users on here might be losing their mind?

@Zaxel At least they come in convenient groups. Sadly the internet has enable a lot of this. Crazy uncle Joe used to just be a quirk at family gatherings. Now he can find other people from across the world to feed his paranoia and possibly send him over the edge into killing someone like some modern xenophobes have done in their shooting sprees.

@canusernamebemyusername what can be done? i feel like people just arent listening to reasoning

@Zaxel I think teaching people critical thinking skills is the strongest thing we can do. I can certainly help children and prepare them for the future.
It doesn't really help those that have already gone off the deep end though cause you would have to be able to convince them that they even had a problem to start with. And according to meme theory the meme (mind parasite) has the same properties as a living organism including self preservation. So it will do everything it can to control the person's mind including twisted thinking, cognitive dissonance, straight out denial and continue to look for any and all things that feed into it.
For those people they recommend removing the person from the source of disinformation. But some people have conditions that prevent even that. I do wonder if antipsychotics would have any impact. I know they help with paranoia, magical thinking and more severe delusions. But no one has ever really tried treating conspiracies.

@canusernamebemyusername critical thinking is really important. i think the younger generations are doing a better job of it but there needs to be more of an emphasis on thinking vs memorizing random facts.

@Zaxel Definitely. I have noticed that for many kids thinking actually seems to cause them some type of pain. Like even physically with headaches and such. I know I experienced that myself when I have to do math. lol So a way needs to be created that encourages their curiosity. Cause a curious mind is hard to make a sheep cause it always wonders. But regular school beats the possibility of thinking out of many students. It wasn't until college that I was taught how to think instead of what to think. Also the younger generation might do better as a push back against the rampant disinformation that is currently being disseminated.

@canusernamebemyusername the younger generation is definitely doing better, the older people seem to believe anything from what im seeing. school ruins curiosity its true, im legitimately worried now, america has rapidly devolved in so little time

@Zaxel Yeah I've really noticed it going down over the past five years myself. Or maybe I'm just paying more attention so I could be biased.