Why people know all about politics, but not about physics
Once I read, unfortunately, I cannot remember the source, or even if I have really read it, maybe I made it up! Nonetheless, it does not change the point! Once Sigmund Freud said to Einstein that he envied the work of Einstein, since no one seemed to give advices about his work, but about the work of Freud, everyone had an opinion; of course, Freud somehow provoked, since his work was mainly “mental”, experimental psychology is recent, as so his work was opened to speculation that he himself did a lot. Why is that so, that everyone seems to think that know all about politics?
You may argue that it affects directly their lives, for that reason they seem to think that they know all; physics also affects our lives; and in some sense politics is even more complex, since no one could explain it in terms of equations! Some people studies the concept of “Bullshit”: it is studied, believe or not, some studies why people “bullshit”!
People seems to assume that for some areas, such as politics and psychology, there is no need to study at all! Some researches show that the more someone is ignorant about something, the more they seem to think they know: some says that they lack the same ability they need to judge their ignorance; so a cycle of ignorance.
Recently, I am reading a book about the Brazilian Elite called “Elite do Atraso”, and I have decided to post a small excerpt from the book on my Facebook page, and guess what, someone had an opinion even before reading the book, just one paragraph was enough! Since it is my Facebook, the person was an old friend of mine, more precisely, an old classmate. My point is: I often post about physics and science, no one says a thing, but one post about politics, there we go! I have replied gently, I never get in discussions in social networks, and I am not planning to start now. But that somehow bothered me that people seem to know all about politics, even going against someone, the author, that writes about the topics for years, with several books published.
My point is: why people assume that they know all about politics, but not about physics? Politics is more complicated then physics! Nonetheless, people assume they can just go there and say whatever they want.
Unfortunately, I do not have the answer! For sure they maybe some books about the issue, in psychology. I wish people would take seriously the opinion formation process. I never liked politics, but recently I have decided to study it, because I have seen that I have two roads: form an education opinion or form a biased option. I prefer the former. In “Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America” Scott Adams nicely put this problem and other regarding people bad formation of opinions and their mental traps.
