3 ms·

> But it's a major in modern public discourse, and one for once that I'm quite willing to lay heavily at the feet of the public education system. Should the ge

> But it's a major in modern public discourse, and one for once that I'm quite willing to lay heavily at the feet of the public education system. Should the general population be better at such things? Yes, of course. However, in nearly every case such things reach a broader audience via mainstream media. And how many times have we seen those entries confuse correlation with causation? We've seen it so many times that it's safe to assume it's intentional. Surely, after each incident of such negligence a teacher or professor or math savvy citizen reaches out to correct them. Yet? Never a correction or retraction?? Never a spark of "we need to educate our journalists"? Repeat something often enough and it becomes truth in the minds of the receivers. Toss in confirmation bias and echo chambers and even if your better educated the masses, the media and those "journalists" would mitigate public's understanding.

photochemsyn 5y ago
In addition, the entire advertising-based consumer economy is based on getting the potential consumer to buy the product by whatever means available. A public education system that creates a population conditioned to believe whatever any 'authority figure' says is also a system designed to create a population ripe for exploitation by advertisers. Similarly, the ideal authoritarian state desires a population that is generally ignorant and obedient, and that's what's been created in much of the United States. A general population that has the tools and skills needed to independently analyze the claims of government authority figures and cable TV and Internet advertisers, that's not what an elitist-authoritarian system desires. It's very sad to see people who completely lack these tools and skills attempting to do their own well-intentioned analysis, they're so easily manipulated by dishonest actors. They know enough to distrust 'authority figures', but not enough to conduct independent evaluations of claims. Such people have been sabotaged by the educational system.

photochemsyn 5y ago

In addition, the entire advertising-based consumer economy is based on getting the potential consumer to buy the product by whatever means available. A public education system that creates a population conditioned to believe whatever any 'authority figure' says is also a system designed to create a population ripe for exploitation by advertisers. Similarly, the ideal authoritarian state desires a population that is generally ignorant and obedient, and that's what's been created in much of the United States. A general population that has the tools and skills needed to independently analyze the claims of government authority figures and cable TV and Internet advertisers, that's not what an elitist-authoritarian system desires. It's very sad to see people who completely lack these tools and skills attempting to do their own well-intentioned analysis, they're so easily manipulated by dishonest actors. They know enough to distrust 'authority figures', but not enough to conduct independent evaluations of claims. Such people have been sabotaged by the educational system.