How much would education help people resist demagoguery, crazy conspiracies...

[Silent3]

...propaganda, misleading advertising, etc?

I'm sure all these things can be taught to some degree, but how far it could go in being effective, I'm not sure. How much is nature, and how much is nurture?

One thing that seems pretty certain, however, is that we've never tried very hard to teach this stuff. These critical thinking skills should be considered a vital part of education in a healthy democracy, at least as important as language skills, math and science (all of which critical thinking overlap when taught properly).

And what ever happened to teaching basic civics?

[CrispyQ]

1. Our side has let right wing hate radio spew their message of division

unchallenged for forty years,. Maybe we could start there.

[Silent3]

5. How do you start there while respecting the 1st amendment?

I suppose we could try bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, but it's unclear to me how well that would apply to current technology.

The Fairness Doctrine didn't run afoul of freedom of speech protections because over-the-air broadcasters were using a limited, public medium (available broadcast bandwidth), which made it a defensible position to enforce public service as part of the bargain necessary to be granted access to a limited public resource.

Now bandwidth is, for all practical concerns, essentially unlimited.

I think educating people to recognize and resist that hateful spew, regardless of whether it's allowed to happen, is the best solution. But it's also a long-term solution, because it wouldn't get started anytime soon, and wouldn't have much impact on those already out of school.

[empedocles]

2. In Rick Steves' ''The Story of Facism in Europe'', the experts on facism interviewed

at the end of the Story, all relied on education in the prevention of facism. Europe, and Germany in particular, have worked on this.

[CottonBear]

3. My child studied fact based vs opinion writing in 4th & 5th grade.

I’m going to teach them civics on my own, even if they also have it in middle school.

We watch and listen to the local, state and national news together. I discuss real journalism vs entertainment, debunking conspiracy theories, and how to research sources and facts.

All schools need to teach these skills along with civics.

[42bambi]

14. Yes 100% - civics classes are a must, and in the early years of their education. I had

civics in the 7th grade, and we, altogether, would actually begin each class with a different student each day ask a question relative to their own life experience; a discussion would then follow. It was an awakening for me.

[CottonBear]

17. Wow! Isn't it amazing what one teaching moment can achieve!

As parents, teachers, friends and families, we need to help educate our young people!

[iamateacher]

4. Librarians teach information literacy

All the things you mention. I used to teach these things in elementary school. Unfortunately, No Child Left Behind left information literacy behind...

[fierywoman]

6. If general education was based on problem solving instead of vomiting answers,

the child's mind would already be enhanced. Now add serious arts education for the imagination (instead of "there is only one answer&quot and the brain would develop differently: look at what Finland has done. Add the rigor of learning how to debate (either side, not just the one you are innately drawn to) and celebrating dichotomy instead of obliterating it, then things would get interesting in a good way.

[Jeebo]

7. I worked for a newspaper for 45 years, retired now.

We had several different kinds of accuracy checking and fact checking and checking with our sources to make sure that what we put into print was true. But nowadays, people get their information from a bunch of different sources that are not subject to any of those kinds of safeguards, and many of them don't even CARE about whether the information they're putting out is true. That's a huge part of the problem we're facing now, but yes, as you observed, teaching people critical thinking skills will help to overcome that. The problem with that is that many of the seriously misinformed don't WANT the truth, they just want to hear what they want to believe.

One of the things I tell people while we're in the middle of the political silly season right now is that they should not let television, radio, newspaper and billboard advertising inform their voting decisions. Television ads in particular are one of the WORST possible ways to guide your voting decisions. The newspaper I used to work for puts out a Voter's Guide edition before every election that I use. I don't need it, of course, for the big races, but for the smaller races like school board and county commissioner and the like, those candidates and issues often are ones I don't know anything about and need some guidance.

-- Ron

[Sympthsical]

8. It's an Internet problem

The human mind is designed to gravitate towards confirmation bias. When you can curate your own information intake and exist solely in echo chambers that reinforce what you already believe, you can derive a great deal of comfort from it.

And this isn't a Left vs. Right issue. It's not even an education issue. I know highly educated people who I just roll my eyes at when they start talking.

To use one example, look at anti-vaxxers. These are not uneducated people. And they're not solely right-wingers either. They have been a big problem in the Bay Area over the years. These are educated, affluent people. These are very liberal people. And they're totally nuts. And right-wingers got on board in their own way.

The problem is, they get on FB or message boards and groups that already think like they do. So they all post together, share links that confirm their beliefs, offer up anecdotal evidence to reinforce the beliefs. It becomes a concreting cycle.

People who say, "I think critically!" often do not. I mean, DU is a massive echoey reinforcement of beliefs. I post little because I'd just start arguing half the time. Everything's a Russian plot. There is never a bad protester - it's always right-wing agitators. Only a very narrow band of media sources are allowable. Anything less than Happy Talk is bashing and disloyalty to the party. Anything slightly critical is "concern" and probably posted by a Russian bot or troll (like they'd care about a minor website with maybe 100 regularly active posters).

And that's just here. Go into a place like Reddit, and hoo boy. Shit gets thick.

I like it here. I get good opinions and look for posters whose opinions I value even if I don't always agree.

This place is generally full of smart, educated people. But the mindset still persists, same as anywhere else on the internet.

[NJCher]

12. agree

I don't post that much anymore for that reason. Just noncontroversial stuff 'cuz it's not worth the uproar.

[Silent3]

13. The point is can people be educated to resist confirmation bias?

Would such education “take”, or wouldn’t it?

To respond both to this last post and another one, I’m certainly not talking about mere quantity of education, or even quality of education when that quality is measured in, say, breadth of subject matter or grades and test results.

I’m talking about education focused very specifically on pitfalls of human thinking, education that would keep a constant emphasis on critical thinking across all subjects, not just one-time passing mention of the subject.

As far as I know, that’s never been tried on a widespread or intensive basis in this country.

[Sympthsical]

18. It's default human nature

I'm not sure if that kind of education would take. In an academic environment, sure. But once people are out in the world, they tend to default to their nature. The thing is, subjects like politics, religion, and human relationships are necessarily rooted in our emotional systems. We'd have to be almost machine-like to sift through information dispassionately enough to get to the root of the truth of a matter. And even then, a lot of opinion is going to be spiced in based on subjective experiences.

When you have STEM subjects, that form of thinking is possible. Either things work or they do not. Physical and mathematical principles are not subjective things. You can't have an opinion about gravity. It's there, like or not.

Once any topic where feelings and opinions are involved comes up, forget it. Even when people know better, they tend to stubbornly default into their instinct and intuition. I try to be as objective and fair as possible much of the time, but I recognize there are plenty of times where surrender all pretense of objectivity and start arguing something based on how I feel and perceive things, whether objectively correct or not.

We're all kind of like that, and I just can't see a few college courses smudging that out sufficiently enough.

It's food for thought, though.

[Silent3]

19. I'm thinking primary education, not college

By time people get to college, it would be best if they had already possessed critical thinking skills for a long time.

I'd want to see this education start in the most basic of ways in elementary school, becoming more advanced as the years go by. We teach kids other forms of emotional control, after all, like the skills needed to get along with other kids, play team sports, etc. (Sure, that doesn't work out close to perfect either, but presumably better than not trying at all.)

Why not try to teach some emotional discipline when reasoning about issues with emotional weight?

Further, people aren't always emotionally invested in many important political issues, at least not right off the bat. That often requires sticking with a position until it becomes part of one's sense of identity and community. Perhaps if critical thinking comes earlier, those more difficult-to-break emotional attachments to irrational positions would sometimes be avoided.

[Claustrum]

9. While I think education is part of it, it's not the only factor

You don't have to look further than educated people that's religious. They tend to lean conservative either because of abortion or gay rights. It even took religious democrats on our side a long time to turn on that issue.

[kimbutgar]

10. Someone recently posted a video about lateral thinking of Information content one encounters on the

Internet.

All Americans should be taught critical thinking and be able to look beyond and research several sources.

[BamaRefugee]

11. You Can't Fix Stupid. 'Murica has been know around the world for well over 100 years as a nation of

rubes and suckers and grifters.
100s of book, movies and songs have been written about. The phrase "There's a sucker born every minute" has been around since 1885.
Stubborn, defiant, self-inflicted ignorance is a part of the American DNA.

Look at a map of the Confederacy. Then look at a map of where college football is being played in the midst of a killer pandemic. Almost an exact overlay.

[JI7]

15. Only if it helps to make them less racist, sexist, anti gay, anti semite etc

[Buckeye_Democrat]

16. I think it would help, especially improved science education.

Only Six Percent Of Scientists Are Republicans: Pew Poll
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_229382

I was fortunate to have a very science-oriented education at my public school, and later in college.

I've been frequently shocked by the lack of BASIC science knowledge among my past coworkers. A bunch of the rural schools around here must really stink at science education. Lo and behold, many of those same coworkers were very gullible about conspiracies and Republican propaganda too!