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Re:Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (2013) by mulmen on Monday February 20, 2017 @04:44PM (#13691231)
I have noticed the same phenomenon. Since humans are social creatures I think there is an evolutionary bias to avoid decision paralysis and just follow whoever seems to be the most confident. We are better off in general if we just cooperate and take action instead of deliberating every decision so people seem to be wired to just accept the first thing that appears to be reasonable.
Re:Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (2013) by TheOtherHobbes on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @07:46AM (#13695042)
We pretty much still do instinctive, animal politics when it comes to respecting leaders. Style trumps substance.

But I think it's analogous - and possibly related to - the difference between individual decisions made by instinctive, narrative logic and emotions, and decisions made after formal, extended, peer-reviewed reality-based research.

It took a long time for humans to invent science and logic, partly because science and logic use a lot of time, energy, and resources. So you need a certain level of physical security before you can even consider them.

If you research the history of science, many of the post-enlightenment heavy hitters were independently wealthy. They certainly weren't worried about food or having a roof over their heads.

Moving beyond animal alpha politics requires the same leap in collective intelligence - which may require everyone to be independently wealthy.

Democracy isn't enough, because when you have a majority making political choices instinctively, and a resource-rich minority manipulating them for personal greed, there's no room left for rational post-animal post-alpha politics.

Put simply, Trump and Clinton are both inevitable products of a scarcity economy.

Re:Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (2013) by candiodari on Tuesday February 21, 2017 @12:27AM (#13693506)
Since the alternative would often be a "deer in headlights" situation, I bet that's even the right thing to do. Reacting in group beats reacting by yourself, even if the resulting reactions are less intelligent.