May You Live in “Interesting Internet” Times

Here’s a tweet/bluesky post I made under my legal name earlier this week. I think it neatly sums up the state of the internet and its chilling effect on the world in 2025.

“If you spend any length of time on any internet platform or in any internet forum where people can offer their opinions without reference to their expertise, you very quickly find that *everyone* is an expert on *everything* despite knowing absolutely nothing about *anything*.”

It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about Twitter, BlueSky, Reddit, the comment sections under news articles or a private forum in some random, members-only website; you will inevitably find people who are confidently sharing their “knowledge” with everyone else in the forum, despite that “knowledge” being so easily debunked with just a cursory search of reliable sources.

But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? People don’t want to do any research using reliable sources. Doing that might lead to the uncomfortable realisation that you’re not as knowledgeable as you like to think you are.

And we wouldn’t want that. Being confronted with their own ignorance might force people to learn something. And learning something might affect their worldview, maybe even upend their deeply held beliefs or reveal that their heroes they idolise are actually frauds.

“Do your own research.” This is an interesting phrase you often hear when you challenge people on the veracity of what they so confidently say in an internet forum. They frequently follow it up by saying that they have done their own research. Unfortunately, that research has usually been done in the internet’s most unreliable, darkest corners or involves a trip down a dodgy YouTube rabbit hole.

There’s a quote that is often attributed to American poet and author Charles Bukowski that goes, “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts and the stupid ones are full of confidence.” Interestingly, the original quote actually referred to ‘bad writers,’ not intelligent people. It’s from the literary journal “Arete” in a 1989 interview.

I’m quoting this here because it seems to me that it’s not only appropriate but still very much valid over thirty-five years later. It’s a widely known and often-quoted saying, and it can be found in all sorts of memes on the internet. Before sharing it, however, I did what felt natural – a quick check of its origin. This, I suppose, is the lingering effect of a university education and the emphasis on ‘critical thinking.’

But then, I have a university degree, which makes me part of the educated, liberal elite, doesn’t it? And who wants to listen to educated people? What do they know about anything? Have they done their own research?

So, employing that ‘critical thinking’ I supposedly possess, I did some actual research using reliable sources and quickly (and easily) discovered that the widely shared version of the quote is a variation of Bukowski’s original and that other thinkers had expressed the underlying sentiment for years.

W.B. Yeats, for example, wrote “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” He died in 1939. And Bertrand Russell, who died in 1970, said “The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world, the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

The idea that ignorance breeds confidence is hardly new. It’s just that in 2025, when we are all hyper-connected to what we used to call “the information super-highway,” you’re more likely to come across the confidently ignorant. Or maybe Stupidly Cocksure is a better phrase.

I particularly appreciate Russell’s quote, especially the notion that doubt accompanies intelligence. This inherent questioning, the hallmark of critical thinking, seems intrinsically linked to intelligence itself. Intelligent individuals are characterised by their scepticism. They don’t accept information at face value or rely solely on trust. Instead, they question, verify, and demand evidence.

In contrast, those less inclined towards critical thinking often readily accept information, placing their trust in admired figures rather than seeking proof. The lack of critical thinking and the absence of doubt provide fertile ground for the growth of so many online ‘grifters’ and it’s what allows them to be successful. They prey on this trust, convincing those who lack scepticism that they possess some hidden truth, even if that ‘truth’ is demonstrably false or harmful. In fact, the uglier the ‘truth,’ the more some seem to believe it.

There’s an old Chinese proverb – “May you live in interesting times.” In this context, “Interesting” is a euphemism for difficult, dangerous, and chaotic. The sentiment being expressed is akin to a curse. You aren’t wishing someone a peaceful, pleasant life; you’re wishing upon them a life of upheaval, conflict or stressful times.

So, as we navigate these ‘Interesting Internet Times,’ perhaps the old curse has found a particularly potent new form. And the question of what, if anything, we can do about it remains.