All posts tagged: political issues

When experts fail – The Atlantic

When experts fail – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. In 2017, my Daily colleague Tom Nichols wrote a book titled The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters. Three years later, America underwent a crisis that stress-tested citizens’ and political leaders’ faith in experts—with alarming results. The Atlantic published an excerpt today from the second edition of Tom’s book, which includes a new chapter evaluating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the relationship between experts and the public. I chatted with Tom recently about American narcissism, the mistakes experts have made during the pandemic, and why listening to expert advice is a responsibility of citizens in a democracy. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Narcissism and Distrust Isabel Fattal: Why did you feel it was important after the COVID-19 crisis to rerelease this book? Tom Nichols: The book is …

How Manipulators Use Disgust to Hijack Our Brain

How Manipulators Use Disgust to Hijack Our Brain

Published by skeptic

Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. Disgust is an incredibly powerful negative emotion, capable of inducing vomiting, panic, and rage. The sound evolutionary reason for our experience of disgust is that it helped keep us alive—by making repellent the tastes, sights, smells, and other sensations associated with death, rottenness, or toxicity. So when your refrigerator smells wrong and, upon inspection, you find that the culprit is a piece of chicken that has gone south, you feel nauseated by something that just a week ago made your stomach growl with anticipation. And instead of eating the bad meat, you throw it out. An important part of the brain that helps govern this process is the insula, which works to keep us safe by alerting us to pathogens in our environment that might harm us. But if the insula is damaged, disgust can decrease or disappear. Scholars in 2016 showed this in an experiment involving patients with neurodegenerative diseases that affect the insula; …

The Murky Logic of Companies’ Israel-Hamas Statements

The Murky Logic of Companies’ Israel-Hamas Statements

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. In recent weeks, statements about the Israel-Hamas war have emerged from corporations of all kinds. Predictably, they have not all gone over well. First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic: The Logic of Speaking Out Since October 7, more than 150 companies have made statements condemning Hamas’s attacks on Israel. A tracker compiled by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a business professor at Yale, shows the wide-ranging nature of the industries represented. Palantir, which works with governments on data and defense projects and has an office in Israel, took out a full-page ad in the The New York Times that said “Palantir stands with Israel.” Salesforce, which has offices in Israel, put out a statement condemning Hamas’s attack and outlining support for employees there. And brands with less obvious connections to the region, such as Major League Baseball, have issued …

Reader Views on Press Coverage of Race

Reader Views on Press Coverage of Race

Published by skeptic

“Most of the time, I don’t think that negative reactions to observational, non-prescriptive pieces about race are the fault of the author,” one reader argues. Photo-illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Tony Bock / Toronto Star / Getty August 1, 2023, 4:14 PM ET Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here. In a previous newsletter about a country-music controversy involving the artist Tracy Chapman’s song “Fast Car,” I asked readers: “What is the most constructive way for the press to cover race if its objectives include accurately informing citizens about the past and the present––no matter how awful or uncomfortable––and refraining from framing the news in ways that are needlessly polarizing or essentialist?” Replies have been edited for length and clarity. Zachary harkened back to the coronavirus pandemic: Your question brought to mind this study, which found that highlighting racial disparities due to COVID-19 made white Americans less fearful of …