I agree with the title, but I don’t think there’s any dangers lurking per se. I think that the damage has already happened, and that we’re merely seeing the consequences of it. If I suspect something is wrong with me and I want to go to the doctor, then going to the doctor is only going to reveal the truth. My diagnose would not be the cause of my illness, but the effect. Perhaps I’m just being pedantic here?
I think that a lot of things have been going wrong for many years now, and that were starting to see the effects of that. I don’t think that these effects are unreasonable either. If the system is lying to you, then you’d be right not to trust it, even though it’s problematic that the system can no longer be trusted, and a great shame that people are losing their trust.
The state of politics is far below anything I can respect. I also think that most controversies rely on Not Even Wrong misconceptions. There’s such a disconnect that no constructive conversation can even begin. This website is a rare exception, of course.
I personally doubt the legitimacy of the democratic process, but as it’s already akin to a giant popularity contest in which the goal is to ruin the reputation of the opponent, and with most people seriously involved here specialize in manipulating public opinion, I have a hard time feeling like we’re selecting for anything of quality even if it does turn out to be legitimate. At this point, I think everything is so rotten that a partial reset might be the more healthy outcome. That’s just my opinion though, and I expect most people to disagree with me for personal rather than rational reasons. So this comment will help me find out if this website is what it pretends to be.
Anyway. Prediction: We are heading towards a local minimum. There’s turbulence ahead for sure. It’s difficult to tell how much worse it will get before we’ll see a push-back, and I don’t know the exact power balance between the vocal crowd and those who are still remaining silent. My perception is likely more negative than reality as negative and extreme information is shared at a higher rate (and thus overrepresented), and I’m hoping this is the case.
On a more positive note, I don’t think that election interference will become a very big problem. It can sway results by perhaps 10%, but any more than that and I think it would be easily detected (even the past elections have had a lot of comments from statisticians). Somebody who is hated by the vast majority would never get elected either way.
I agree with the title, but I don’t think there’s any dangers lurking per se. I think that the damage has already happened, and that we’re merely seeing the consequences of it. If I suspect something is wrong with me and I want to go to the doctor, then going to the doctor is only going to reveal the truth. My diagnose would not be the cause of my illness, but the effect. Perhaps I’m just being pedantic here?
I think that a lot of things have been going wrong for many years now, and that were starting to see the effects of that. I don’t think that these effects are unreasonable either. If the system is lying to you, then you’d be right not to trust it, even though it’s problematic that the system can no longer be trusted, and a great shame that people are losing their trust.
The state of politics is far below anything I can respect. I also think that most controversies rely on Not Even Wrong misconceptions. There’s such a disconnect that no constructive conversation can even begin. This website is a rare exception, of course.
I personally doubt the legitimacy of the democratic process, but as it’s already akin to a giant popularity contest in which the goal is to ruin the reputation of the opponent, and with most people seriously involved here specialize in manipulating public opinion, I have a hard time feeling like we’re selecting for anything of quality even if it does turn out to be legitimate. At this point, I think everything is so rotten that a partial reset might be the more healthy outcome. That’s just my opinion though, and I expect most people to disagree with me for personal rather than rational reasons. So this comment will help me find out if this website is what it pretends to be.
Anyway. Prediction: We are heading towards a local minimum. There’s turbulence ahead for sure. It’s difficult to tell how much worse it will get before we’ll see a push-back, and I don’t know the exact power balance between the vocal crowd and those who are still remaining silent. My perception is likely more negative than reality as negative and extreme information is shared at a higher rate (and thus overrepresented), and I’m hoping this is the case.
On a more positive note, I don’t think that election interference will become a very big problem. It can sway results by perhaps 10%, but any more than that and I think it would be easily detected (even the past elections have had a lot of comments from statisticians). Somebody who is hated by the vast majority would never get elected either way.