Comment by marcosdumay
3 days ago
It's usually dumb people that have so many facts and different arguments that one can't keep up with.
And they usually have so many of those because they were convinced to pay disproportionate attention to it and don't see the need to check anything or reject bad sources.
I noticed something similar. People who believe in absolute garbage tend to be the ones that don't have robust bs filter that would let them quickly reject absolute garbage. And it's surprisingly orthogonal to person's intelligence. There's correlation but even very intelligent people can have very weak bs filter and their intelligence post-rationalizes the absolute garbage they were unable to reject.
Robust bs detectors may also leave a person susceptible to rejecting novel or unorthodox ideas. Theres a balance somewhere between not being overwhelmed by the sea of crazy and still being open to a good idea when it comes along.
Edit: This thread is amazing. 12 years of pre-uni schooling and no mention of any of this stuff... Also fair criticism of IRA too in the article. Still, seems a little ironic that the people crying foul benefited from the status quo of an uneducated populace.
I don't think you can have too strong bs detector. After it rejects something it's not forever. When the thing you rejected occurs in new contexts or produces new results you will reevaluate and either reject it again or withdraw your rejection. That's the point where intelligence comes in so that you won't withdraw your rejection too soon or reject a valid thing too persistently. But from what I noticed evaluation made at this stage are rarely a problem. The bulk of the problem is not strong enough bs filter for the initial rejection to happen. And once someone believes in something it's very hard for him to lose that belief. Garbage sticks.