information about the world beyond what is received through the senses comes through the media and the media is owned by a vanishingly small number of self-interested individuals. making up our minds about things which, for us, only exist, in any meaningful sense, as images on a television, or as words in a newspaper or on the internet, is...
in the nicest possible way, i think your take on this is pollyannaish in the extreme. it's not an adult view of reality.
because the assumption in doing that is that the sheeple are incapable of making up their own minds
I think there's some truth in both perspectives, but: it's not simply a few newspapers (whose editorial line I dislike) that constitute "the media" which influence us, its television, social media, newspapers, the universities, the arts, one another, etc, etc; and it seems a bit too convenient if the way influence works is that my ideological opponents are being manipulated and taken advantage of, whereas I am free from influence.
I think there's some truth in both perspectives, but: it's not simply a few newspapers (whose editorial line I dislike) that constitute "the media" which influence us, its television, social media, newspapers, the universities, the arts, one another, etc, etc; and it seems a bit too convenient if the way influence works is that my ideological opponents are being manipulated and taken advantage of, whereas I am free from influence.
In the book's first section, Kahneman describes two different ways the brain forms thoughts:
System 1: Fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious. Examples (in order of complexity) of things system 1 can do:
see that an object is at a greater distance than another
localize the source of a specific sound
complete the phrase "war and ..."
display disgust when seeing a gruesome image
solve 2+2=?
read a text on a billboard
drive a car on an empty road
come up with a good chess move (if you're a chess master)
understand simple sentences
connect the description 'quiet and structured person with an eye for details' to a specific job
System 2: Slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious. Examples of things system 2 can do:
brace yourself before the start of a sprint
point your attention towards the clowns at the circus
point your attention towards someone at a loud party
look out for the woman with the grey hair
dig into your memory to recognize a sound
sustain a higher than normal walking rate
determine the appropriateness of a behavior in a social setting
count the number of A's in a certain text
give someone your phone number
park into a tight parking space
determine the price/quality ratio of two washing machines
determine the validity of a complex logical reasoning
solve 17*24
No, just that people fed misinformation will make decisions that don't reflect their best interests (in the short run, or the long run, depending).
I actually think it's more patronising to pretend that the majority of people have chosen the current state of affairs in full knowledge of the fact it wouldn't benefit them. They're not that stupid!
it's certainly a pretty nifty mobilisation of my argument - i'll give you that
of course there is the aspect that people only buy newspapers/tune in to media etc which reflects their deep-seated opinions in the first place. that's to a large extent the way the media operates surely - to endorse people's prior attitudes/provide that succour. that's why we have these ludicrous culture wars - two tribes locked into generational antipathy.
There's no need to speculate on potential causes or individual motivations, there is not great mystery. There are reams of research going back decades on how media coverage (and PR/advertising) affects public opinion, views and attitudes.
To give just one tiny example, according to a study by Glasgow university in 2014, the majority of viewers for whom BBC news was their main source of information thought that Palestinians were occupying Israel, not the other way round.
if you feel no anger towards your oppressor and in fact protect them, then you're at one end of that scale (societal Stockholm Syndrome).
they literally teach you this stuff in school.
but who is your oppressor? how do you know you've correctly identified them? you can't trust your own thoughts on the matter because theyre the product of manipulation:
Just to go back to inequality for a moment. Devastating thread here on domestic UK economics.