What we are seeing worldwide, from India to the UK to the US, is the rebellion against the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policymaking "clerks" and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think...and 5) who to vote for.
With psychology papers replicating less than 40%, dietary advice reversing after 30y of fatphobia, macroeconomic analysis working worse than astrology, microeconomic papers wrong 40% of the time, the appointment of Bernanke who was less than clueless of the risks, and pharmaceutical trials replicating only 1/5th of the time, people are perfectly entitled to rely on their own ancestral instinct and listen to their grandmothers with a better track record than these policymaking goons.
Indeed one can see that these academico-bureaucrats wanting to run our lives aren't even rigorous, whether in medical statistics or policymaking. I have shown that most of what Cass-Sunstein-Richard Thaler types call "rational" or "irrational" comes from misunderstanding of probability theory.
NNT: This is a Global Rebellion Against Insiders
Nassim Taleb says this is not just American and Europe, it's India and the rest of the world too. Also, the criticism is justified.
Amen, and it was self inflicted. Heh
ReplyDeleteOn my commute home, I was listening to Howie Carr, A Boston Talk Show host. He read, on air, a WAPO editorial demanding that the RNC stop Trump. Wow, I'm thinking, this is strange. Why aren't they gleeful at the RNCs debacles, certainly they aren't going to support a Republican, even if he/she walks on water. So, shouldn't they be gleeful that the Republican party is imploding? Doesn't this help Hillary?
ReplyDeleteWhat are they afraid of? Surely, they don't really fear that Trump has a shot at the WH? OTOH, maybe, it's damage control and they don't want any more mockery of the servant class (media/politicians) or the Beautiful People. Trump has undermined their authority and credibility, He must be stopped.
Humans are always like this, obeying the Authorities and thinking that makes them smart or good. This will never be fixed. It just cycles in and out. Since, after all, humans are weak and Authorities appear strong.
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