There’s a tendency in this heated political climate to simply reject people who are saying false things and to write off conspiracy theorists writ large.
But as the US approaches the third straight election in which misinformation — and the fight against it — is expected to play a role, it’s important to understand what’s driving people who don’t believe in US elections.
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I talked to O’Sullivan about the documentary, in which he has some frank and disarming talks with people about what has shaken their belief in the US. But he paints an alarming picture about the rise of fringe movements in the country.
Our conversation, conducted by phone and edited for length, is below:
WOLF: What were you trying to accomplish with this project?
O’SULLIVAN: So much of mainstream American politics now is being infected and affected by what is happening on what was once considered the real fringes — fringe platforms, fringe personalities.
And I think really what we want to do in this show is illustrate how these personalities may be pushing falsehoods, but they’re no longer fringe. This is all happening right now. And it is having a big effect on our democracy.
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I’m only saying this because your post is about education and you also did it twice.
But its spelled citizen.
Thanks!
Unless you’re a republican. Then please, get rid of school requirements. Put education in the responsibility of the parent. Reduce teaching wages and extra curricular activities.
One of the things I learned in sociology class in a Department of Defense high school in the 80s was educated people are easier to propagandize.
I’d go look look it up in Safari and come back to this message with links but whatever this client app is on iOS with the mouse icon will not save the state of my work and I’ll never find this conversation again .
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Oh no, a dude was a product of his time, but as society got better he changed with society for the better, THE HORROR.
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Nonono, don’t settle for the lesser evil… Cthulhu 2024.
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Counterpoint, not celebrating when someone changes for the better encourages shitty people to just STAY shitty people, and I could argue THAT is why we end up having to vote for lesser evils. You have to be 100% on the right side of history right from the moment you are born or else fuck you for the rest of time I guess
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Is he not restoring the LGBTQ protections that the previous president removed? Which part of that is doubling down on him being wrong in the past? Attacking everyone who doesnt fully agree with you doesnt change ANYONES minds, and in fact makes you more enemies, thus putting whichever cause you fight for further behind
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I don’t know for sure, but I think maybe they are downvoting you because pointing out that sort of thing about Biden right now when there’s a very good possibility Trump could win is not very helpful.
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I don’t have your crystal ball, so I’d rather chances not be taken at the moment.
It’s probably true, in some contexts.
If you are a foreign government? Or internal powers wanting to enact an authoritarian and religious regime that hurts the peoples it’s trying to convince? Then probably not. Educated people are going to be harder to turn against their own interests.
A DoD high school?
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Yep. because they have a false sense of what they know.
Esp the people who are educated at BA level… when you get to MA/PhD it gets different, but you can’t expect most folks to ever attain that level of education. Because it’s only in graduate work that you realize how little any of us really knows and how much work (a lifetime) it takes to be an expert of a very tiny slice of the world.
That’s not true at all.
Plenty of the highest educated people in American are pushing this nonsense. Why? Because it makes them money. Crazy bullshit sells penis pills.
Education has nothing to do with it. If anything being super well-educated makes you overconfidence and more likely to fall for this shit.
What makes people not likely to fall for it? Skepticism. That’s what. Our education system is built making corporate drones, and the people who succeed at being yes men are most likely to get the best grades and the jobs.
I agree with parts of you post, like the educational system not creating people that think critical, but rather swallow whatever is thrown at them.
But well educated people are absolutely not more likely to fall for bullshit like penis pills. The same way a kid is far easier to manipulate compared to an adult for the same reason.