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How can the quality of political information be improved?

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Re: How can the quality of political information be improved?

#11
We can stop engaging with political discourse that doesn't take the form of long-form exposition. When you realize only a very small minority of people will adhere to this ideal, that people crave snippets and soundbites inside of bubbles, the next step is realizing that democracy is rule-by-mass-media, which disseminates a message carefully crafted by a small intellectual elite; that the opinions of voters are largely crafted for and distributed to them; their opinions are not their own.

Even this, what I've written, is just feelings and intuition. So that's basically my answer: long-form exposition and the skills for evaluating an exposition's soundness. But it's an ideal that doesn't play out.

Re: How can the quality of political information be improved?

#12
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say my point is fair but then seem to just dismiss it, and throw in a straw man. Obviously no single news article causes a riot. But a series of fake news articles cause people to hold false beliefs. False beliefs lead to bad decisions. However I agree with you that fake news alone is not the problem. It’s fake news combined people with shitty lives combined with no sense that the system cares.

"Its the media!! There is nothing wrong with America!!" Please. Thats brainwashing

“It’s fake news combined with people with shitty lives combined with no sense that the system cares.”

I draw you to the last line of what I wrote, where I clearly indicate that there is a lot wrong with America, and that fake news is only a part of what is going on.

It almost seem as though you seem to to be arguing that fake news plays no role in anything.

Re: How can the quality of political information be improved?

#14
Teach critical thinking (including logic, cognitive biases, epistemology, etc.) and source criticism in schools.

Misinformation, propaganda, conspiratorial thinking and other bad ideas is nothing new.

Give people the tools they need to differentiate between information with various degrees of truthiness.

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