Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“What’s the nicest way to say, ‘You’re wrong?’ You could try blaming errors on ‘lack of information.’ Better yet, accuse a villain of deliberately spreading lies. What you definitely don’t want to do is denounce the people in error as ‘stupid,’ ‘foolish,’ or ‘irrational.’ As usual, however, there is a tension between being nice and being correct. Since flawed cognition and flawed information are both potential causes of error, we should be open to the idea that ‘stupidity,’ ‘folly,’ or ‘irrationality’ caused any particular error. On further reflection, however, we should be more than open to this idea. Why? Because a central feature of proper cognition is weighing the reliability of information!” (05/27/25)