ReConsider

Social market dynamics are driving the ever-greater fracturing of public discourse. Can it be pulled back together? In this episode Erik finishes his series with the MIT Enterprise Forum on media technology and political polarization.

Check out the show notes for the original slide deck at http://www.reconsidermedia.com

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In this episode, Erik expands substantially on work from Wedged, talking about how media technology, now and in the past, contributes to (or doesn't contribute to) political polarization.

Check out the show notes at http://www.reconsidermedia.com for the slide deck!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the words of the legendary Terry Pratchett, in the Discworld novel The Truth:

“A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth has had a chance to get its boots on.”

Or from one of my favorite bands, The Protomen in their song, “The Hounds”:

“When I say he was a monster

When I set fire to his name

It does not matter where you hear it from

Whether truth or lies, it gets said all the same

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…

Whatever’s on the table plays!”

Volume bias

I’ve been on a kick recently about a propensity for us to misunderstand or misrepresent people who aren’t in our tribe. And how BS gets amplified.

In “How to casually radicalize a citizen,” we talked about how people with less-than-awesome intent can easily (and do) create a stream of the worst of the opposition. You can see this and then get a bit radicalized yourself, as we see.

But this is happening passively, too. I call it VOLUME BIAS.

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Agenda:

• Weren’t nukes good for global stability? The idea of Mutually Assured Destruction
• Game Theory and the First Strike problem of most nuclear weapons
• The Dr. Strangelove scenario
• Were there close calls? Yes, here are all of them
• Also, the broken arrow problem
• Can you actually get rid of nukes? Probably not….
• ...but can you get rid of the first strike problem? Probably!
• The magic of stealth boomer submarines
• Fmr. SecDef William J Perry’s modest proposal
• How would you get this done? Who do you lobby?

https://www.wjperryproject.org/

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I finally managed to get a bunch of patrons to send me questions. Many who are eligible have still sent none, so I’m going to be doing another soon!

Some GREAT questions came in this time! Enjoy!

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Do you ever feel like your political opposition is talking right past you? As if you are having two entirely different conversations?

You might be working with COMPETING FRAMES. Come learn how those work - and how to win.

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In an age of sensationalism and hyperbole for political points, words like 'insurrection' and 'coup' might make us numb. but let's dig deeper. Was the Jan 6th Capitol Riot an "Insurrection?"

(Note: this episode long delayed due to potential threats to the hosts' welfare, but we're finally releasing it!)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.