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> People need to develop the ability to think critically for themselves and not rely on appeals to authority. This can't happen if people become lazy and simply
by antisthenes 7y ago
> People need to develop the ability to think critically for themselves and not rely on appeals to authority. This can't happen if people become lazy and simply trust whatever media is out there.
That's a nice normative statement, but that battle has been lost over a century ago with advent of cheap mass media that enshrined consumerism. Consumerism advocates that the optimal behavior isn't "what is optimal and fair here?" but "what do I want ?"
It erodes critical thinking at grassroots levels.
Not to mention that these days media companies have perverse incentives to generate outrage and polarizing viewpoints instead of just reporting the damn news
- nightski 7y agoWow I disagree. If you look at the US as a whole, it is clear we are much better at critical thinking and even thinking in numbers than ever before. YES lots of people get things very wrong. But we are now throwing data, charts, statistics in front of the general population. People are seeking out data and trying to make decisions for themselves (even if they are not doing a great job yet, it's far better than before!). I know it is fun to be doom and gloom but the reality is our society is better than it was before. People are calling out the media and politicians on their BS faster than ever before.
- bawolff 7y agoUsing (misleading) statistics/charts/graph to lie to people is an age old tradition. I dont think their usage indicates much about critical thinking unless viewers are viewing the charts critically