Talk:Declinism

Not a cognitive bias
I have removed the Cognitive bias link because I do not think we have grounds for labelling declinism as such. See Talk:List_of_cognitive_biases for my reasoning. MartinPoulter (talk) 20:33, 16 February 2016 (UTC)


 * I don't think that including a link to Cognitive bias in the See also section here implies that Declinism is a cognitive bias. Ref [1] claims that a possible engine for Declinism may be certain cognitive biases and that's where the connection between the topics lies. I have restored the Cognitive bias link with some context to explain the connection. ~Kvng (talk) 21:51, 16 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I maintain that reference 1 is an inadequate source, for the reasons given at Talk:List_of_cognitive_biases. Reference 1 is a speculative proposal, which is why I think we should uncomfortable with using it to define the topic. MartinPoulter (talk) 21:56, 16 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, that could be the case but there should be no problem reporting this reliably sourced information and no problem linking to Cognitive bias as part of that. ~Kvng (talk) 15:51, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

Cause / tone of article
Obviously there can be a false or exaggerated deception of decline, but the attitude of this article almost implies that all (contemporary, at least) perception of decline is irrational or illusory. One problem is that obviously decline exists. The counterbalance to this article would be that of the Idea of Progress or Chronological snobbery, whereby people tend to believe in a system of upward, continual progress. Obviously progress exists, but it is not holistic and not all change represents "progress". There are obviously tendencies to interpret info as representing either decline or progress, and I don't think it is particularly insightful to simply explain these away as total cognitive distortions or irrational or whatever. There have been some improvements in conditions after the GFC, but there have also been setbacks. Nazi Germany had less unemployment and poverty than Weimar Germany, but one would not be wrong to say that the state of Germany or of a German person's life had declined in some way - they are just valuing different attributes, not ignoring evidence of progress. BigGoyForYou (talk) 10:29, 12 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Nazism is not the only example. Global warming is another. https://conspiracy.fandom.com/wiki/Frequent_medicine_dosing_conspiracy#The_myth_of_the_declinist_%22cognitive_bias%22 185.205.225.220 (talk) 09:34, 7 September 2023 (UTC)