> All more the reason to shine a light on these ideas. They won't hold under scrutiny.
That assumes people are rational.
What we know is, people are more likely to believe things they have heard before (mere exposure effect), and are more likely to believe things their peers believe (bandwagon effect).
I believe in free speech. As in, the government must not censor peoples speech. But we're crazy to think bad ideas will go away just because we expose them, or scrutinize them with arguments.
When you have an idea that is dangerous and perceived as fringe, you must individually choose not to give that idea more exposure. The risk is you normalize the idea for a segment of your audience.
When the idea is dangerous and breaking into the mainstream, you have no choice but to confront it. But you can't do so with arguments alone. You need to blend logical arguments with emotional appeals, because 1. that's how humans work and 2. the other side is doing it and you are at a disadvantage if you don't. Remember that the art of rhetoric originally encompassed 3 areas: Logos (logic) Pathos (feeling) and ethos (credibility).
Good. If your business depends on collecting tons of personal information from people, and storing it in a way that puts innocent people at risk, your business does not deserve to exist.
That assumes people are rational.
What we know is, people are more likely to believe things they have heard before (mere exposure effect), and are more likely to believe things their peers believe (bandwagon effect).
I believe in free speech. As in, the government must not censor peoples speech. But we're crazy to think bad ideas will go away just because we expose them, or scrutinize them with arguments.
When you have an idea that is dangerous and perceived as fringe, you must individually choose not to give that idea more exposure. The risk is you normalize the idea for a segment of your audience.
When the idea is dangerous and breaking into the mainstream, you have no choice but to confront it. But you can't do so with arguments alone. You need to blend logical arguments with emotional appeals, because 1. that's how humans work and 2. the other side is doing it and you are at a disadvantage if you don't. Remember that the art of rhetoric originally encompassed 3 areas: Logos (logic) Pathos (feeling) and ethos (credibility).