[moduspol]

We've already got people with the correct worldview in charge of curriculum and personnel. The problem is that there are still dumb-dumbs that sometimes think there are valid alternatives to our worldview. That's why we need better education.

[tzahola]

We should incentivize them to have the correct worldview. E.g. if you’re a CEO you should make sure that your workforce holds the correct opinions by reminding them that they can be fired on the grounds of being a bad “cultural fit”.

[branx]

I can't tell if this post is ironic or not

[potta_coffee]

"correct worldview".

People like you scare me.

[moduspol]

Sorry--it is satire, but the comment represents literally how it comes across to me when I see claims that "better education" will effectively bring about less toxic discussions. The implication is clear: If only people were rational and educated, like me, they wouldn't think the way they do, and then we would all agree.

[mistermann]

How about this: first teach advanced critical thinking skills, so people have the skills (if not the will, that's another problem) necessary to see through propaganda from both sides.

I have a feeling a lot of people would have issues with this approach though.

[moduspol]

How do you teach critical thinking?

[Retra]

By giving people things to think critically about, and ensuring that they respond in an appropriately thoughtful manner.

Of course this doesn't work when politics is taboo.

[verylittlemeat]

I think emotional maturity is more important than critical thinking. People in our culture have this life or death anxiety over being right, especially in social groups. You see it all the time on social media. Person 1 makes a throwaway facebook post which contains some kind of factual error. Person 2 points this out. Person 1 feels personally attacked and becomes emotionally invested in "winning." The more pushback person 1 gets the more stand their ground and will scorch the earth to save face. Where is all this intellectual insecurity coming from?

[moduspol]

I guess I'm just not sure what the curriculum would look like. Is there something you could point to as an example of a course doing this well?

[mistermann]

I would start with someone who is skilled in both critical thinking and education, or am I misunderstanding the question?

Logical fallacies would be one place to start, you can see examples of this all day long on reddit for example.

[moduspol]

Well, my understanding is that "critical thinking" is already very commonly considered to be part of various course curricula. If it's not being taught, then we'd need to do something differently.

I've been hearing claims of the need to teach "critical thinking" since I was in high school. To me it always came across as one of those things that can't easily be taught, particularly in a traditional academic setting. Everyone agrees it should be taught, but if there were a clear way of doing it, we would.

[rorykoehler]

Philosophy

[dsacco]

You’d think that, but Wittgenstein minted his career on calling philosophers out for not thinking critically enough in debates.

[dang]

Even if you hadn't misinterpreted the GP, this crosses into personal attack, which is not allowed here. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to those rules when commenting on HN.

[exolymph]

I think moduspol was being sarcastic.