Are knowledgeable voters better voters?

submitted by jet199 from journals.sagepub.com

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[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

What u/Axxa said the other day had me thinking about this

Wow, that is not a light read. Too much philosophy for my tastes but if I had to distill this down to a tl;dr that would be "it's complicated."

To put my own spin on things I feel the author was hinting at in his first point, but couldn't say is, that people in general just aren't good at governing themselves no matter how educated they are on issues because they're dumb.

Forums are a great microcosm of this. Very often what the userbase wants does not serve their own interests ultimately. Look at how many once great reddit subs have fallen due to popular but disastrous policies.

[–]fschmidt 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

It's not complicated. First, look at the date of publication, 2022. That tells you right away that it isn't worth reading. Then ask, knowledgeable about what? Of course being knowledgeable about politics is useless. One needs to be knowledgeable about life. And this is what the voting requirements of early America tested for. Only men with property and without debt should be allowed to vote. That proves a basic understanding of life. Quite simple really, but all good ideas from the past have been forgotten.

[–]Tiwaking 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

First, look at the date of publication, 2022. That tells you right away that it isn't worth reading.

Next look at the journal ranking (its not good):
https://www.resurchify.com/impact/details/21100255401

The overall rank of SAGE Open is 13190. According to SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), this journal is ranked 0.357.

[–]jet199[S] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I think the gist is that educated people are better are using word games to avoid addressing problems with their beliefs.

One solution would be to teach people about how to avoid political tribalism and media bubbles at the same time you are teaching them how to make an argument. But many in the educational establishment likely don't want to do that.

[–]starblue 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Even better, teach kids civics and home economics, again. Real-life skills and practical grounding do wonders for your ability to reason.