Demystifications

It's no secret that the internet is full of misinformation. I've consistently come across myriad remarks in comments sections and social media posts that are simply untrue, or which betray a serious lack of understanding of contemporary issues and societal structures.

I'm often tempted to respond to comments on reddit or news articles and set the record straight about some common falsehoods, but more often than not I've noticed that any responses that I make are mobbed and downvoted immediately. Even if I provide ample citations folks cimply don't want to hear what I say because it conflicts with their worldviews and their naive theories about how certain institutions and entities work. I've come to the conclusion that engaging in dialogue challenging populist/folk beliefs is not a useful application of my time. Topics that I have direct experience with are no match for Randy in Boise.

This portion of my wiki is where I plan on keeping notes about polemical topics that I'm knowledgable about. I'm making them public on the off chance that someone else might find them useful. I won't claim that these pages are 100% accurate, but they are a reflection of a mixture of life experiences and readings that I have done. I expect that for some topics that I am especially knowledgable about (e.g., higher education) my notes will be more accurate, although there are many areas where I am (at best) a layperson (e.g., law, etc). When possible, I will use these notes to aggregate links to articles written by individuals who are more intelligent/informed than I am. Overall, I strive to avoid the cognitive pitfall of naive realism, although I find it particularly difficult to believe that most internet commenters are well-informed.

If someone comes across this site and feels the need to correct some of my assumptions, he/she/$prounoun is welcome to send me an email via the email address associated with my Github profile, although I make no guarantees that I will change my notes (since they are, after all, for me).