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Must answer questions before posting comments to prove you understand news

independent.co.uk

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Re: Must answer questions before posting comments to prove you understand news

#91

Post by ice109 »

pmarreck wrote: post #78
ice109 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are you like totally ignorant of how literary tests (and poll taxes) were used to disenfranchise minorities

if all the literate people were male and all the illiterate people were female, requiring literacy would not necessarily be sexism. you're conflating 2 different things. as did they. perhaps it did exclude more recently-emancipated black people. oh well. requiring literacy for something as important as an election is not obstructionist, IMHO The fee you mentioned, however, is, IMHO. if I had to hire a scientist for a…

>i look forward to the day when people just stop trying to correlate everything both positive and negative to race, gender, age, and any other attribute other than "are you a good person" and "can you do this job well"

completely abstracted of the rest of history maybe that'd be possible. the problem is that black people in antebellum south were prevented from learning to read. so really it went something like: let's not teach black to read and then require literacy in order to vote.

>oh well. requiring literacy for something as important as an election is not obstructionist, IMHO

i would gladly wager that an overwhelming majority of voters don't read more than 10,000 words about any given election and get most of their data from television/radio/speech. so tell me why literacy is of paramount importance?

Re: Must answer questions before posting comments to prove you understand news

#92

Post by Myrmornis »

warrenm wrote: post #88
Myrmornis wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One form of question could be this. Then even if people parrot the right answer, they are still being improved and have to acknowledge their profound wrongness every time they visit the ballot box. Your child is very sick. Do you (A) Do what is recommended by peer-reviewed scientific literature, of which one of the central tenets is that you only believe things which are backed up by data and solid arguments. (B) Do…

So which is the "right" answer, in your system? And who gets to determine (and enforce) "rightness"?

The system that determines "rightness" is the system that makes your medicines work, your planes fly reliably, your bridges safe to drive over, and the computer and communications network work that allowed you to type that silly question into.

Re: Must answer questions before posting comments to prove you understand news

#93

Post by GoToRO »

ivanbakel wrote: post #62
GoToRO wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask questions that a 5th grader could answer. The level does not hove too be that high for it to be effective. Or... just ask science questions: "Is planet Earth flat?".

That just tests the ability to stick to consensus - what happens when you get the equivalent of "does the Sun orbit the Earth" in a society before Copernicus and Galileo? You also move away entirely from the original point of the questions - someone with scientific knowledge doesn't necessarily know anything about society and politics . They're separate worlds.

In a society before Copernicus and Galileo that question would have been cutting edge science. So just stick to well understood things.

Re: Must answer questions before posting comments to prove you understand news

#94

Post by GoToRO »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #82
GoToRO wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask questions that a 5th grader could answer. The level does not hove too be that high for it to be effective. Or... just ask science questions: "Is planet Earth flat?".

Even that is apparently fraught because a few people (though no sects I'm aware of) profess belief in a flat Earth for religious reasons. For example, Biblical literalists interpreting Job 38 as implying a flat Earth ("Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? [...] Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof").

That's exactly the point: exclude those people. The idea is not to have everybody pass the test.

Re: Must answer questions before posting comments to prove you understand news

#95

Post by warrenm »

Myrmornis wrote: post #92
warrenm wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So which is the "right" answer, in your system? And who gets to determine (and enforce) "rightness"?

The system that determines "rightness" is the system that makes your medicines work, your planes fly reliably, your bridges safe to drive over, and the computer and communications network work that allowed you to type that silly question into.

So you would categorically exclude anyone who disagrees with you?

Re: Must answer questions before posting comments to prove you understand news

#96

Post by Myrmornis »

warrenm wrote: post #95
Myrmornis wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system that determines "rightness" is the system that makes your medicines work, your planes fly reliably, your bridges safe to drive over, and the computer and communications network work that allowed you to type that silly question into.

So you would categorically exclude anyone who disagrees with you?

Anyone who thinks that religious faith is a better route to knowledge than science, yes. You wouldn't?
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