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Re:Why Dumb Ideas Capture Smart and Successful People by jackcosgrove on Sunday November 19, 2023 @07:46AM (#38332160)
If you can remember it, the American media and foreign policy establishment was fully in support of the war in Iraq. That actually is a really good example of what the author describes because I'm sure many knew it was a bad idea but went along with it to preserve their careers.

I think we should be charitable with the author and not assume a "dumb idea" is something he disagrees with, but rather is something that was proven to be bad by the passage of time.

Re:Why Dumb Ideas Capture Smart and Successful People by TheOtherHobbes on Sunday November 19, 2023 @08:23AM (#38332419)
Well - he quotes The Cato Institute. And the graphic is clear enough, I think.

The rhetorical sleight of hand is that it's not true that feeling you're being censored - and needing to self-censor - is the same as actually being censored.

Self-censorship and self-selection are endemic in the corporate world, and the associated beliefs are mostly taken for granted without dissent.

You're not going to get far in fintech, management consulting, or media channels such as Fox if you start questioning why so many people are poor, ill, and homeless.

Similarly, if you work for FAANG you're not going to have a job for long if you start suggesting these BigCos should reinvent themselves as worker co-ops.

That's a very different kind of argument to the one about pronouns, because most people are not actually threatened in real terms by (say) LGBTQIA+ or unionisation.

Of course plenty of people are just fine with how things are and the article is right to the extent that it points out that ideological conformity is a middle class luxury.

Re:Why Dumb Ideas Capture Smart and Successful People by ethanbond on Sunday November 19, 2023 @08:23AM (#38332421)
I mean you can also just read the author’s other content which is mostly whining about woke-ism.
Re:Why Dumb Ideas Capture Smart and Successful People by anonymouskimmer on Sunday November 19, 2023 @01:29PM (#38335956)
> And in fact, if anything, it’d suggest the exact opposite of what the author implies by virtue of a really simple, obvious fact: an expert’s social circle is more likely to be well-informed on the domain of expertise than the social circle of a complete outsider.

Which makes it really important to determine the actual boundaries of that domain of expertise.

Re:Why Dumb Ideas Capture Smart and Successful People by mistermann on Sunday November 19, 2023 @09:15AM (#38332807)
> If you can remember it, the American media and foreign policy establishment was fully in support of the war in Iraq.

A decent corollary to that: how the pro-Israel media campaign is working out in the latest flare up with Palestine now that TikTok has been added into the mix, a fantastic illustration of the real reason they want to take it down.