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What is this, the official opinion of the ministry of propaganda? Having an authority fact check everything is surrendering your judgement to someone else, in t

What is this, the official opinion of the ministry of propaganda? Having an authority fact check everything is surrendering your judgement to someone else, in the worst case an authoritarian regime. I’d like to think people are either smarter than we acknowledge or you and I are dumber than we think.

ben_w 8y ago
We are all, unfortunately, dumber than we think. National politics is not something you walk into with mere “common sense”, neither is law nor military power nor economics nor international relations nor civil engineering, yet we all have Opinions about these things which we are encouraged to share via democracy. It’s really easy to convince a crowd with appeals to fallacies of common sense or logic — in the case of Brexit, for example, I’ve seen people argue that the EU is simultaneously evil for not providing Greece with enough of a bail out, and also evil for asking rich countries like the UK to pay more money than it receives from the EU (which it does to help poor countries like Greece). Such fallacies even affect people with degrees from Cambridge University, it’s not merely something we can blame on poor education and pretend we’re immune to.
- blibble 8y ago
  > I’ve seen people argue that the EU is simultaneously evil for not providing Greece with enough of a bail out, and also evil for asking rich countries like the UK to pay more money than it receives from the EU (which it does to help poor countries like Greece). it's perfectly consistent if you realise the EU and the Eurozone are not the same thing and have different competing interests
  - ben_w 8y ago
    “Competing”? Synergistic, surely.
merpnderp 8y ago
After visiting friends and family this Thanksgiving,I’m not so sure people are smarter or more moral than we acknowledge. I was shocked several times by what I considered horribly immoral positions held up as just and correct policy implementations.
- influx 8y ago
  And you’re the only one of your friends and family who is smart, moral, and has reasoned yourself into your political and policy viewpoints?
  - merpnderp 8y ago
    That it’s ok to shoot a security guard -without warning- because he is sitting on the back of a mass shooter with his gun pointed at him and since all he needed to do was slightly aim the gun upwards to shoot at the cops and cops aren’t paid to take risks to save innocent lives. Try that one on and tell me how reasoned or moral it sounds.

ben_w 8y ago

We are all, unfortunately, dumber than we think. National politics is not something you walk into with mere “common sense”, neither is law nor military power nor economics nor international relations nor civil engineering, yet we all have Opinions about these things which we are encouraged to share via democracy. It’s really easy to convince a crowd with appeals to fallacies of common sense or logic — in the case of Brexit, for example, I’ve seen people argue that the EU is simultaneously evil for not providing Greece with enough of a bail out, and also evil for asking rich countries like the UK to pay more money than it receives from the EU (which it does to help poor countries like Greece). Such fallacies even affect people with degrees from Cambridge University, it’s not merely something we can blame on poor education and pretend we’re immune to.

blibble 8y ago
> I’ve seen people argue that the EU is simultaneously evil for not providing Greece with enough of a bail out, and also evil for asking rich countries like the UK to pay more money than it receives from the EU (which it does to help poor countries like Greece). it's perfectly consistent if you realise the EU and the Eurozone are not the same thing and have different competing interests
- ben_w 8y ago
  “Competing”? Synergistic, surely.

merpnderp 8y ago

After visiting friends and family this Thanksgiving,I’m not so sure people are smarter or more moral than we acknowledge. I was shocked several times by what I considered horribly immoral positions held up as just and correct policy implementations.

influx 8y ago
And you’re the only one of your friends and family who is smart, moral, and has reasoned yourself into your political and policy viewpoints?
- merpnderp 8y ago
  That it’s ok to shoot a security guard -without warning- because he is sitting on the back of a mass shooter with his gun pointed at him and since all he needed to do was slightly aim the gun upwards to shoot at the cops and cops aren’t paid to take risks to save innocent lives. Try that one on and tell me how reasoned or moral it sounds.