CxD #241: Communication failures + redemption in a 🍓
An unfortunately familiar response to societal-level shocks —inlcuding COVID — goes like this:
Fear ➡️ panic ➡️ closing-of-mind ➡️ confirmation bias ➡️ righteousness ➡️ shaming ➡️ censorship ➡️ Authoritarian desire to control ➡️ loss of trust in those outside the bubble of control ➡️ echo chambers ➡️ divided communities ➡️ broken countries.
When the next, more virulent virus-calamity sweeps down on us, will we reenact this pattern again?
Unfortunate fact of humanity: being wrong lowers our dopamine levels. It physically feels bad. That’s often why we double down on being right before allowing an alternative view into our mind’s umwelt.This incisive conversation into our current information landscape’s confusion helped me further integrate and understand our errors in communication and how we can —and must! — do better next time.
Podcast version here:
https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/310-social-media-public-trust
Sam Harris speaks with Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger, and Renee DiResta about the release of “the Twitter files” and the loss of trust in the institutions of media and government. They discuss Bari and Michael’s experience of participating in the Twitter files release, the problem of misinformation, the relationship between Twitter and the federal government, Russian influence operations, the challenges of content moderation, Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, the need for transparency, platforms vs. publishers, Twitter’s resistance to the FBI, political bias at Twitter, J.K. Rowling, the inherent subjectivity of moderation decisions, the rise of competitive platforms, rumors vs. misinformation, how Twitter attempted to control the spread of Covid misinformation, the throttling of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the failure of institutions to communicate Covid information well, the risk of paternalism, abuses of power, and other topics.Give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, and I will find something in them to have him hanged. ~ Cardinal Richelieu
3.
If you haven’t yet watched The Last of Us, and aren’t afraid of mushroom zombies, it’s great television by which to relax at the end of a long day while watching others struggle for their apocalyptic-zombie-infused lives. But episode 3, a standalone episode you could watch pretty much out of context leaving the mushroom zombies for another day, is the antipodal opposite of a mushroom zombie. I won’t say more except that thanks to a beloved long-time CxD reader who kicked me in the pants to watch it, my heart was moved tenderly and profoundly. 🍓
I like people who I can open up to
Who don't judge for what I say, but judge me for what I do
And when I think of people I look up to
My runner, my runner, my man
My runner, my runner, my man
I laugh when you say the wrong thing
Mouthing off to everybody else but me
They hit you with the rolled-up magazine
My runner, my runner, my man
My runner, my runner, my man
Load it up, know your trigger like the back of my hand
Load it up, know your trigger like the back of my hand
What's a couple grand rolled up in your pocket
I won't tell nobody, baby you don't tell nobody
Yes, I have done a couple bad things
Yes, I have done a couple bad things
Yes, I have done a couple bad things
Yes, I have done a couple bad, yeah