How big a problem is misinformation for a democracy? How do we arrive at the truth? Listen as economist and author Arnold Kling talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about how we should think about truth-seeking. The conversation also revisits Kling's classic work, The Three Languages of Politics, and the relevance of its framework for the current moment.
The disinformation fighters, perhaps including B.P.S., would argue that there is such a thing as truth. So we should censor falsehood. From an outcomes perspective, that makes sense.From a process point of view, are attempts to censor misinformation a useful tool? I would argue that, on the contrary, giving some elite group the authority to silence other points of view is not a process that improves social epistemology. As a process, it breaks down, ultimately failing to achieve the desired outcome. Where you have viewpoint suppression, you end up with the triumph of dogma and the loss of truth.The Enlightenment norms and institutions which have been so valuable do not include viewpoint suppression. Instead, they emphatically reject it. Let all viewpoints be heard, and let them be contested.
