Propaganda doesn’t totally rob people of agency free will (more accurate term), if it did this site wouldn’t exist. People do have the capacity to develop critical thinking, skepticism, and a basic curiosity about the world that allow them to develop some resistance to propaganda.
You can hold people accountable for failing to even attempt to do this.
I think this is related to the concept of “different levels of wrongness.” someone who says “2+2=4” is correct. Someone who says 2+2=5 is incorrect. But if someone else says 2+2=35, they’re far more wrong than the person who says 5. Someone who says “2+2= Cat” is so wrong they are no longer talking about mathematics anymore. But then there’s an answer like “2+2 = 22” which is also very wrong, but could indicate that the person doesn’t understand the concept in question at all(in this case, addition) but is still trying to give a sincere and honest answer.
When talking to people who believe nonsense, we need to figure out how much nonsense, and how different from our own interpretation their understanding is. We shouldn’t assume we have things right, the goal should always be to get “less wrong” and to help others be “less wrong.”
“2” + “2” = “22”
Just gotta get your syntax right
I can’t hear the term “lesswrong” without thinking of those AI cultist freaks.
oh good, I’m not the only one involuntarily twitching
Ew, they use a term like that? Makes sense. Any type of internet “-bro” will take actually useful terms and turn them into meaningless junk designed to shut down conversation.