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But isn't the flip side of all this censorship a reduced ability for people to tell bullshit from reality? Why is information intelligence not taught in school

But isn't the flip side of all this censorship a reduced ability for people to tell bullshit from reality? Why is information intelligence not taught in schools? Much like an immune system, we need to be exposed to nonsense so that we're constantly vigilant. There will always be a group of nutters who believe in flat earth, that vaccines cause autism, etc... Trying to cut that off at the source just throws these people into underground cults. A more scalable, sustainable solution is to 1) teach people to do their research - properly, as in, don't go on Facebook and join "Flat Earth Society Boston" to find The Truth 2) teach people it's okay to change their minds - part of this spreading cultism is that political opinions are now core identities 3) teach people to tolerate opposing viewpoints, even the silly ones - point and laugh, but don't try to cancel and destroy their lives Another thing - every time a tweet or document is censored, the replies are generally cut off as well. How can people learn to distinct true and false if they don't get to see examples of people being wrong and corrected.

wizzwizz4 5y ago
> Much like an immune system, we need to be exposed to nonsense so that we're constantly vigilant. No: much like an immune system, we need to be exposed to vaccines (i.e. education on how to spot deception, knowledge of what scams are currently going on). Enough people trying to deceive you, and eventually someone will succeed.
pjc50 5y ago
How is the education system today going to help people who went to school in the 1970s? Conversely, what should we teach children today about the information threats of the 2050s?
- throwaways885 5y ago
  A proper fix is better than an instant fix.
  - pjc50 5y ago
    Sure, but in the meantime the misinformation voters get to pick the textbooks. This is a bit like educating people in fire prevention when the forest is already ablaze.
ABCLAW 5y ago
>But isn't the flip side of all this censorship a reduced ability for people to tell bullshit from reality? No. People have limited processing cycles in their heads, and you never notice the bullshit you fall for, so you can't correct for errors you're making. Critical thinking skills are great, but they don't provide you expert-level knowledge in every field, nor can they. Sometimes your educated heuristics are just plain wrong and someone else has better information you don't have access to. I see this all the time here with content in my field - developers just get law wrong all the time. You might remember an era when email inboxes were FLOODED with a deluge of dick pills, get rich quick schemes, Nigerian prince scams, and other low-effort, low-value content. Sure you might be able to avoid clicking on garbage, but the general health of your inbox declined dramatically. Does that mean society is going to end because we've trampled upon the rights of the latest Cialis replacement to spam my inboxes? Probably not.
- ajsnigrutin 5y ago
  You have Johnny, saying you should wear a mask when you go to the store, because it helps you against covid. And Bobby says you shouldn't, because there's no evidence it helps, and it might even be even worse for you, if you wear it wrong. So you're suggesting we should remove Johnnys fearmongering, conspiracy post, because we should listen to the experts? https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-masks-recommendation-trnd/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-mas... Experts clearly say that "There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly," Expert knowledge by WHO. ...and a month later, we should delete Bobbys post too? Do we undelete Johnnys post?
  - ABCLAW 5y ago
    This is actually pretty interesting because your post is premised upon a massive misreading of what actually happened. It shows you can spread disinformation while thinking you did your research. The expert knowledge was that mass usage of masks early on in the pandemic could prevent frontline healthcare workers from accessing needed supplies while logistics spun up to meet demand. "There also is the issue that we have a massive global shortage," Ryan said about masks and other medical supplies. "Right now the people most at risk from this virus are frontline health workers who are exposed to the virus every second of every day. The thought of them not having masks is horrific." This is literally the third paragraph. When community spread began to drive the bulk of new infections and we've had months to spin up production on masks, obviously mass adoption changes in value.

wizzwizz4 5y ago

> Much like an immune system, we need to be exposed to nonsense so that we're constantly vigilant. No: much like an immune system, we need to be exposed to vaccines (i.e. education on how to spot deception, knowledge of what scams are currently going on). Enough people trying to deceive you, and eventually someone will succeed.

pjc50 5y ago

How is the education system today going to help people who went to school in the 1970s? Conversely, what should we teach children today about the information threats of the 2050s?

throwaways885 5y ago
A proper fix is better than an instant fix.
- pjc50 5y ago
  Sure, but in the meantime the misinformation voters get to pick the textbooks. This is a bit like educating people in fire prevention when the forest is already ablaze.

ABCLAW 5y ago

>But isn't the flip side of all this censorship a reduced ability for people to tell bullshit from reality? No. People have limited processing cycles in their heads, and you never notice the bullshit you fall for, so you can't correct for errors you're making. Critical thinking skills are great, but they don't provide you expert-level knowledge in every field, nor can they. Sometimes your educated heuristics are just plain wrong and someone else has better information you don't have access to. I see this all the time here with content in my field - developers just get law wrong all the time. You might remember an era when email inboxes were FLOODED with a deluge of dick pills, get rich quick schemes, Nigerian prince scams, and other low-effort, low-value content. Sure you might be able to avoid clicking on garbage, but the general health of your inbox declined dramatically. Does that mean society is going to end because we've trampled upon the rights of the latest Cialis replacement to spam my inboxes? Probably not.

ajsnigrutin 5y ago
You have Johnny, saying you should wear a mask when you go to the store, because it helps you against covid. And Bobby says you shouldn't, because there's no evidence it helps, and it might even be even worse for you, if you wear it wrong. So you're suggesting we should remove Johnnys fearmongering, conspiracy post, because we should listen to the experts? https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-masks-recommendation-trnd/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-mas... Experts clearly say that "There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly," Expert knowledge by WHO. ...and a month later, we should delete Bobbys post too? Do we undelete Johnnys post?
- ABCLAW 5y ago
  This is actually pretty interesting because your post is premised upon a massive misreading of what actually happened. It shows you can spread disinformation while thinking you did your research. The expert knowledge was that mass usage of masks early on in the pandemic could prevent frontline healthcare workers from accessing needed supplies while logistics spun up to meet demand. "There also is the issue that we have a massive global shortage," Ryan said about masks and other medical supplies. "Right now the people most at risk from this virus are frontline health workers who are exposed to the virus every second of every day. The thought of them not having masks is horrific." This is literally the third paragraph. When community spread began to drive the bulk of new infections and we've had months to spin up production on masks, obviously mass adoption changes in value.