And one more thing, regarding the 'Free Marketplace of Ideas'.
There are things that can screw up a marketplace of ideas just as there are things that screw up economic markets.
It goes into that 'persuasion vs. manipulation' distinction. The whole concept of 'spin', of telling your people the 'party line' when it's isn't your true reasoning, means that you don't believe you can win in the marketplace with the ideas you have.
It shows that you don't think you can persuade someone else to share your belief, don't believe you can win the debate in an honest fight.
I get that you may not feel quite able to articulate your reasons, I just stated I have trouble capturing so much of the things that feed into mine. But I also have faith that there are other people, more articulate than me, who could lay out the arguments well.
This ties in with my complaints about gerrymandering, too.
Because if you think you can't win elections otherwise, what you're really saying is that you don't think your arguments are persuasive enough to get the support you need.
And if you believe them, and if you find them persuasive, then why on earth do you think someone else wouldn't? Just about the only 'reasons' I can think of that don't have the potential to persuade other people are the ones that are inherently selfish.
That is, you can't necessarily persuade other people that you deserve a million dollars (though some people apparently succeed at doing so.)
But if you can articulate why you believe x policy is a good idea, you may be able to persuade someone to change their mind. Depending on the person, and the strength of you argument, of course.
Anyways. Point is that attempts to gerrymander, to outright lie about your reasoning, and to manipulate the public into supporting policies you don't think they otherwise would pretty much destroys the free marketplace of ideas.
There are things that can screw up a marketplace of ideas just as there are things that screw up economic markets.
It goes into that 'persuasion vs. manipulation' distinction. The whole concept of 'spin', of telling your people the 'party line' when it's isn't your true reasoning, means that you don't believe you can win in the marketplace with the ideas you have.
It shows that you don't think you can persuade someone else to share your belief, don't believe you can win the debate in an honest fight.
I get that you may not feel quite able to articulate your reasons, I just stated I have trouble capturing so much of the things that feed into mine. But I also have faith that there are other people, more articulate than me, who could lay out the arguments well.
This ties in with my complaints about gerrymandering, too.
Because if you think you can't win elections otherwise, what you're really saying is that you don't think your arguments are persuasive enough to get the support you need.
And if you believe them, and if you find them persuasive, then why on earth do you think someone else wouldn't? Just about the only 'reasons' I can think of that don't have the potential to persuade other people are the ones that are inherently selfish.
That is, you can't necessarily persuade other people that you deserve a million dollars (though some people apparently succeed at doing so.)
But if you can articulate why you believe x policy is a good idea, you may be able to persuade someone to change their mind. Depending on the person, and the strength of you argument, of course.
Anyways. Point is that attempts to gerrymander, to outright lie about your reasoning, and to manipulate the public into supporting policies you don't think they otherwise would pretty much destroys the free marketplace of ideas.
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