Aggressive Ignorance
In conversation with a friend the other day, a conversation that evolved as most such do for me (three or four topics at once, tangled together like spaghetti), we got to talking about nuclear power and how people think they're smart and clever when the just scream "But, Fukushima!" when someone suggests more of it. That I had blogged about that recently was no coincidence, of course.
So, we got to talking about that phenomenon, the incredibly simplistic notion that one can rebut another's (potentially deeply researched, well-sourced, and/or logically founded) with a three-seconds-of-thought retort.
I looked at this behavior a couple years ago, on another cliche retort to libertarianism, the "what about the roads" silliness. As libertarian podcaster Eric July amusingly and NSFW-ly retorted,
You not foolin' a libertarian by bringing up them bitch-ass roads!
The first goddamn level one rookie childish kindergarten ass bitch made argument that you throw out there is "what about the roads?"
Watch the whole thing here. And, yes, libertarians have figured out "muh roads." Just as nuclear power proponents know all about Fukushima, and Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl. Know more, almost certainly, than the "But..." retorter.
Nevertheless, we get that retort all the time. With the smug almost dripping off the screen.
What justifies such aggressive ignorance?
It's been posited that such anti-social behavior is magnified by social media, or more specifically by its creation of distance between conversers. Rather than face the risk of being called out for an overtly ignorant remark, one can drop his little truth bomb and walk away, opting never to look at any response that comes back (and also having the insulation of time between comment and retort to soften any potential blow).
Remove the social guide rails we're all used to in face-to-face communication, and you alter the reward-punishment dynamic that tempers public displays of arrogant ignorance. Alter that dynamic, and you get more of a bad thing.
So much of it that I try to adhere (I don’t always succeed) to a social media rule: Just as one should never get involved in a land war in Asia, or go against a Sicilian when death is on the line, one should never bother posting in open, unmoderated, free-access Internet comment sections.
Just another gift bestowed upon society by Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
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Yours in liberty,
Peter.