[This is a slightly edited repost of an essay from my old LiveJournal] A friend recently complained about how many people lack the basic skill of believing arguments. That is, if you have a valid a…
I think framing it as "learned helplessness" is condescending and unproductive.
We should be encouraging people to learn and to think critically, not tell them that they shouldn't bother, that they would be better off if they didn't bother, that they can never understand things so just leave it to the experts.
Mao's "no investigation, no right to speak" slogan is better in that regard in that it privileges people with expertise without putting up an insurmountable barrier in front of the right to speak.
Even on some of the most technical sorts of examples the author of this piece gives, the experts have made bad calls. The history of medicine is littered with malpractice and scientific racism. Perhaps involving and valuing broader perspectives would have helped in some of those cases.
I think framing it as "learned helplessness" is condescending and unproductive.
We should be encouraging people to learn and to think critically, not tell them that they shouldn't bother, that they would be better off if they didn't bother, that they can never understand things so just leave it to the experts.
Mao's "no investigation, no right to speak" slogan is better in that regard in that it privileges people with expertise without putting up an insurmountable barrier in front of the right to speak.
Even on some of the most technical sorts of examples the author of this piece gives, the experts have made bad calls. The history of medicine is littered with malpractice and scientific racism. Perhaps involving and valuing broader perspectives would have helped in some of those cases.