<story><title>Persuasion through status rather than argument</title><url>https://www.robkhenderson.com/p/how-dumb-ideas-capture-smart-and</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lapcat</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure that it&amp;#x27;s scary. After all, casual racism and sexism used to be a lot more common in the past. Now people are called out and criticized on those. Is that bad?&lt;p&gt;The other factor is the rise of internet social media, which didn&amp;#x27;t exist back then. When people spoke their mind, it wasn&amp;#x27;t broadcast publicly to the whole world, so there was less fear of backlash.</text></item><item><author>Animats</author><text>&amp;gt; In the 1950s, at the height of McCarthyism, 13.4 percent of Americans reported that “felt less free to speak their mind than they used to.” In 1987, the figure had reached 20 percent. By 2019, 40 percent of Americans reported that they did not feel free to speak their minds. This isn’t a partisan issue, either. Gibson and Sutherland report that, “The percentage of Democrats who are worried about speaking their mind is just about identical to the percentage of Republicans who self-censor: 39 and 40 percent, respectively.”&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s a scary number. And it&amp;#x27;s probably not wrong.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Georgelemental</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m not sure that it&amp;#x27;s scary. After all, casual racism and sexism used to be a lot more common in the past. Now people are called out and criticized on those. Is that bad?&lt;p&gt;Even if we grant that the rise in self-censorship is entirely due to &amp;quot;casual racism and sexism&amp;quot; (and I don&amp;#x27;t grant it), wouldn&amp;#x27;t that meant that 40% of people are secret bigots? That sounds bad, you would rather they be open about their beliefs so you can identify them, no?</text></comment>
<story><title>Persuasion through status rather than argument</title><url>https://www.robkhenderson.com/p/how-dumb-ideas-capture-smart-and</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lapcat</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure that it&amp;#x27;s scary. After all, casual racism and sexism used to be a lot more common in the past. Now people are called out and criticized on those. Is that bad?&lt;p&gt;The other factor is the rise of internet social media, which didn&amp;#x27;t exist back then. When people spoke their mind, it wasn&amp;#x27;t broadcast publicly to the whole world, so there was less fear of backlash.</text></item><item><author>Animats</author><text>&amp;gt; In the 1950s, at the height of McCarthyism, 13.4 percent of Americans reported that “felt less free to speak their mind than they used to.” In 1987, the figure had reached 20 percent. By 2019, 40 percent of Americans reported that they did not feel free to speak their minds. This isn’t a partisan issue, either. Gibson and Sutherland report that, “The percentage of Democrats who are worried about speaking their mind is just about identical to the percentage of Republicans who self-censor: 39 and 40 percent, respectively.”&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s a scary number. And it&amp;#x27;s probably not wrong.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>grif-fin</author><text>&amp;gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure that it&amp;#x27;s scary. After all, casual racism and sexism used to be a lot more common in the past. Now people are called out and criticized on those. Is that bad?&lt;p&gt;Isn&amp;#x27;t it scary or least worrying that 40 percent of Americans reported that they did not feel free to speak their minds? Or are you implying they belong to the group who participated in casual racism and sexism that used to be a lot more common in the past and now people (majority of the other 60%) are calling them out and criticize them on those hence concluding not scary and perhaps good?&lt;p&gt;I find it scary too.</text></comment>