[ExI] questions

[William Flynn Wallace]

re education:  I taught college and witnesed first hand educators and what
went on at their get-togethers (hint - educational theories devised with a
nod to fantasy, magic, and extremely unrealistic expectations, along with
research papers which could have been done better by 7th graders without a
knowledge of scientific procedures).  If I had no morals I would have been
in favor of a successful Trump assassin (fyi - Arabic/hashassin).  But if I
knew more I might be in favor of his policies towards the Education
Department.   Science and Education demonstrate the mixture of oil and
water. It's really a psychology tragedy: so many available subjects and so
few good studies.

re amazing slate article:  being entirely ignorant of every area mentioned
in that article I can say:  people don't know what they want - they have to
be told and sold (no, I am not naive- pretty sure most of you know all of
this).  You can always find someone to design the program/write the
article/write the book/etc.   Don't think the Brooklyn bridge can't be
sold?  A genius can sell it to intelligent people)  In effect it is sold
billions of times every day.  Studies show that depressed people (probably
depressed about people) make more rational decisions/predictions.  bill w

On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 12:55 PM Darin Sunley via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Keeping it non-political, I'll take a stab at a serious answer to that
> very important question.
>
> There is indeed a very well-developed science of political propaganda at
> this point. Unfortunately it's almost entirely destructive and
> destabilizing. They can divide populations, they can sow dissent, they can
> entrench existing divisions in opinion, they can even make people
> permanently stupider and more violent. It used to be against the law to
> employ it domestically in the US, but the relevant law was repealed during
> the Obama administration.
> https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1203&context=nulr
> .
>
> The results have been manifest for anyone with eyes to see.
>
> What they /can't/ do is make people smarter, or make people change sides
> around the axes of division they define, once they define them.
>
> [This is in stark contrast to the alleged science of public education,
> which for over 50 years now has been well-established as not being able to
> accomplish much of anything.]
>
> If you haven't read Scott Alexander's "Sort by Controversial"
> https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/10/30/sort-by-controversial/ , I /highly/
> recommend it. It may be remembered as prophecy and documentary rather than
> science fiction.
>
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 11:01 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 12:50 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hint - we need some new topics.  Object:  disinter Spike and Bill w.
>>>
>>
>> At the risk of veering into politics, is there a science to manipulating
>> the standard reason-eschewing low-information MAGA masses and politicians
>> into implementing desired social outcomes?
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