Consider almost any apparently current ‘common knowledge’ today – Net Zero, critical race theory, trans, ‘diversity is our strength’ – and you will find instead a minority concern elevated to ‘common knowledge’ with the dictatorial overlord shouting down those who dare speak against it. This is most acutely felt within academia and certain corporates, but all of us at some point will have self-censored for fear our opinions are not common knowledge when in fact they probably are. If as a society we can succeed in getting a proper handle on ‘common knowledge’ we will greatly improve our country and our sense of ease within it.
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Samizdata quote of the day – How to beat the tyranny of what ‘everyone knows’October 23rd, 2025 |
 10 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – How to beat the tyranny of what ‘everyone knows’Leave a Reply |
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I am watching what happens in britain, possibly in the next few months, over the “common knowledge” necessity for NetZero. As I understand it, britain has been destroying the ability to produce energy and heat at a prodigious rate to try to meet this goal. I don’t know about y’all, but we are about to have winter start here. Statements by environmentalists about happy they are that Mother Gaia is pleased will not keep you warm in a snowstorm. Those making those statements will of course be exempt from any restrictions on heating.
Subotai Bahadur
My personal thanks go to the one guy who gave us a public, free, widely-used forum upon which many found out that those hidden and clearly shameful little opinions which we buried and never spoke of were, in fact, mainstream and widely accepted.
Gaslighting works best in the dark.
Thanks, Elon Musk!
(And, of course, PdH and crew, for this part of it all. It’s all sunlight.)
‘Everybody knows….’ that Farage/Trump is a racist, facist. homophobe, sexist (any other bad thing that the speaker can think of).
I’ve seen this termed as reverse reasoning. It is bad to be a racist, facist, homophobe, sexist (fair enough, I accept all that) , the next step is Farage/Trump is bad; therefore Farage/Trump is racist etc.
I have not found it easy to counter this argument with facts because ‘everybody knows’ . But I continue to try.
Parliament is full of people who do not consider themselves to be common; and common knowledge is beneath them.
A good article by Joanna Gray and I thank the lady for writing it – and I thank Perry for posting it.
At this time I can think of nothing to add.
James Strong:
“Everybody knows” that the authorities did nothing about Rochdale and the other child sex abuse rings because they were afraid of being called “Islamophobic”.
An excellent essay, indeed.
Unfortunately the cost to the individual of parroting the elite narratives of the day is extremely small and the benefits are great. The costs to society are significant but diffuse.
This is not unlike how industrial lobbyists put a great deal of effort and money into influencing politicians to pass legislation that benefit them. The vaccine push during Covid illustrated this on steroids.
Many such events do have a shelf-life, and the best solution is to put up constitutional safeguards to slam the breaks on the most egregiously stupid ‘common beliefs’ leading to damaging policies. Hopefully the common belief will then cease to be so common. Again, Covid is a good example, with the vast majority of people and politicians seemingly happy for the episode to be forgotten.
With climate change/net zero, for a long time the costs of dumb policies have been so far away in time that there has been no counterreaction. That is now changing.
It has been written that individuals with a psychopathic bent actively seek to compromise themselves if that is what is required to be accepted as a member of the ‘in’ group. That was written in the context of politicians seeking to make themselves blackmailable by being photographed with children and farm animals, but I think it could be extended to more banal situations.
Combine that knowledge with the fact that (in the US, at least) approximately 30% of women – mostly on the left – are on antidepressant meds, and the current state of the left becomes more easily explained.
Now do homosexuality.
We mapped the human genome 20 years ago.
No genes were found that even correlate significantly with sexual orientation.
Nobody is “born that way” – not gay, not lesbian, not trans.