Why we have so many fake news and why ridiculous views are widely endorsed

These days we have a huge problem with public discourse. It is filled with the opinions of morons (Trump), liars (Jordan Peterson), and people adoring autocrats (fanboys of Putin, Xi, etc.).

Why is this so? Why aren't reasonable voices dominating in an age when everyone can offer their opinion freely? There are three main reasons.

1. There is a great number of people who are not smart.

2. These people can all afford cheap internet and the lack of information regulations allows them to spread their horribly low quality views. Also, in the West, especially in the US, many people misunderstand freedom and tolerance. They think it includes that we let idiots speak whatever they think without telling them that they and their views are ridiculous. This is not a lucky change. We shouldn't squash people and we should keep encouraging them to learn and improve, but not to voice their views before they have done so.

3. There are plenty of politicians and others who pay a lot of money to distract from their misdeeds by blowing up crazy and false views and issues into huge debates. Just think of Peterson on the Canadian C16 legislation, Trump on ... pretty much everything but especially trade, Xi on China's benign intentions, Putin on how people should just focus on football instead of politics during the WC, and so on.
The fact that the major media channels have made use of similar tactiques for decades doesn't help either. Many less than smart folks expect politics to work like a reality show or Family Guy, where everything can be said for the sake of a gag or ridicule.

Democracy and capitalism don't necessarily go together

http://www.truthandpower.com/blog/blog/politics/capitalism-and-democracy-a-lesson-from-hong-kong/

A very good essay showing that capitalism is not aligned with democracy and the most influential people in a capitalist system do nothing to maintain a democracy if that is not in their immediate interest or even threatens it.

 

To me it seems obvious, that in the US and the EU at the moment we are making the mistake of giving way too much room in decisions about public policy to business interests, and especially those which are aligned with the interests of the big political parties' supporters. If we want to resist the current trends of authoritarian governments rising we would need to push society centred legislation.

 

For example when looking at health spending, what matters most isn't whether it's good business to provide health services but how they can provide best for most people. When looking at legislation on child support, maternity/paternity leave, working hrs, what kind of products can be introduced in a market, whether advertisers can push certain products in schools, etc. should be dependent first on their immediate social effects and just second on the interests of business doing even better.

 

If people are doing well, that will rejuvenate local economies and society will do well. This would create the real disruption, breaking the dominance of giant companies on politics.

 

Democracy and capitalism can work well together. But only if there are strong governments putting the interests of society first, rather than of business or the economy in itself.