Stephen Fry Explains Why Some People Believe Everything Donald Trump Says

[TheBlackAdder]

Last edited Fri May 12, 2017, 12:56 PM - Edit history (1)

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stephen-fry-explains-lies_us_591550ebe4b00f308cf4323c

Some supporters of President Donald Trump believe just about everything he says, even when he’s wrong. And Trump himself seems to have absolute confidence in his own beliefs ― again, even when he is demonstrably wrong.

But there is a psychology lesson that could help explain it, according to Cambridge University-educated actor Stephen Fry, who was voted the most intelligent person on TV in the United Kingdom.

For example, researchers found students who were least proficient often overestimated their own abilities.

“The skills they lacked were the same skills required to recognize their incompetence,” Fry said. “The incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge.”

That’s now known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

In a new clip that Pindex put together, Fry also explains how Salience Bias and the power of repetition help shape views more than facts.

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance,” Fry says in the clip. “It is the illusion of knowledge.”

UPDATE: Added the direct video link:

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[TBA]

1. I saw examples of this frequently when I taught computer programming

Time and time again the best students questioned their skills while the ones who truly did not grasp programming thought they were doing great.

I made a mental note to remember this when interviewing IT people. If you have a candidate that thinks they know everything - beware! Your highly skilled candidates will tend to qualify their skill level.

[wcollar]

2. John Cleese summed this up well.

"In order to know how good you are at something requires exactly the same skills as it does to be good at that thing in the first place. Which means, and this is terribly funny, that if you are absolutely no good at something at all, then you lack exactly the skills you need to know that you are absolutely no good at it."

[kentuck]

3. They have degrees from the Rush Limbaugh School of Advanced Conservatism.

What else do they need?

[Motownman78]

4. Trump supporters are also macho

Alpha-types who have great difficulty ever admitting they were wrong. I have a lot of Trump supporting friends on facebook. They are quiet now, but still support him if pushed.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Plus they demand and respect machoism by those around them

and people like Drumpf are good at pretending they are "macho", while being all hat and no cattle. IMHO this is also part of why we saw the very public firing of Comey. Comey exuded "macho" - bolstered by the fact that he is 6'8" tall and tended to "saunter" into a room. These types recognize other "alphas" and each one "challenges" to re-sort the order. In Comey's case, Drumpf "cheated" by removing him out of the order completely.

[kwassa]

9. Being the Alpha dog is a key part of Trump's identity.

Anyone who threatens his self-perceived supremacy gets smacked down.

This, combined with his bottomless need for attention, means that he always has to be the center of the show.

Of course, he is insane ...

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Yup

His entire "brand" is the commoditization and commercialization of the concept.

[pangaia]

14. Comey is 6'8"? WOW! I had no idea.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. I didn't know that either until

I saw a couple videos of him with other people where in some cases, their heads only came up to his chest.... And then saw the one I posted above where he is towering over Drumpf and bends down to his face when shaking hands. And Drumpf is 6'2", so looked it up and was shocked!

[pangaia]

19. And again I must say, Trump is 6'2" !! I also had no idea.

He always looked about 5'8" to me.

I just figured that with his Napoleon Complex.......

[BumRushDaShow]

22. What's worse is

Pootie.

Actually checked and he is 5'6" (Obama is 6'1&quot !

?quality=80&w=970

[anneboleyn]

28. Trump blew a kiss at Comey then summoned him over like a dog, trying to assert himself.

You can see what a childish coward Trump is in this clip -- he blows a kiss at Comey -- like seriously, wtf. The president blows a kiss at the FBI director when he KNOWS he is under investigation?! The the obvious look of intimidation he has on his face as he tries to do his macho handshake bullshit (you know when he yanks the person towards him) with a man that towers over him (6'8" compared to Trump who is at best 6'2&quot is even more pathetic.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. Well I think we recall Canada's PM Justin Trudeau

blocking that handshake move very well and did it twice!

[colsohlibgal]

5. They Accept Right Wing Talking Points Blindly

Almost all of them do not research the takes they hear from Fox or right wing radio.

The Hillary is running a child sex ring out of a DC pizza place shows us they will fall for almost any nonsense and not question it. They are sheep like humans.

They will say we buy what most of MSNBC is selling. The difference is that they will report bad actions or words from democrats. If Elizabeth Warren had mocked a handicapped reporter they would not ignore it like Faux did with the Orange Creep.

You can trace the hard right tack of republicans to Reagan doing away with the Fairness Doctrine. Propoganda works on pliable minds, we saw it in the 30s in Germany.

[byronius]

18. I saw a recent study about left/right media consumption.

We consume everything. They stay strictly in their own bubble.

Critical thinking skills are important for survival in the information jungle.

[Gothmog]

7. It also helps that trump supporters are all idiots

[HopeAgain]

8. Okay, I have to say this...

Should we take a moment to reflect on our side of the street? All the jumping on board with Palmer, Mensch, and the newest know everything about Washington, Claude Taylor?

The worst way to fight the enemy is to become them.

[Ligyron]

12. Yeah, remember yesterday with the FBI raid in VA?

Those folks were all about how this was the Big One.

Oh yeah, for sure.

Connected directly to Trump Casino and money laundering and they were all going to jail. Everybody in Trump's admin were sure to go down from this raid

Don't we wish...

I have to say, Mensch does get it right fairly often.

[HopeAgain]

13. But is it guessing or is it fact?

When any fake news is published and repeated by Democrats it only lends support to Trump's allegations that everything is fake news. I think in the coming months, credibility will mean everything.

[byronius]

20. I do not agree with your standards of 'credibility'.

Or the idea that somehow Mensch and Taylor are 'fake news', which is clearly your subtext.

Seems like concern trolling to me. We're in the grip of a lunatic fringe bent on destroying the United States in every way, and you're going to parse and throw shade on people that clearly have some useful information stream, a rare asset in such a time?

You're going to insist on a standard that favors corporate news feeds? If it's not mainstream television, it's suspect? Because I don't trust any of that crap unless it's Maddow et al. In fact, I would suggest that the credibility gap is clearly with the larger news organizations. Normalizing Dolt and hiring climate deniers and parsing phrases when the world is about to burn -- WTF?

You're on your own with those opinions.

[HopeAgain]

26. I value facts.

There are tried and true methods of investigative reporting. Not reporting everything anyone may say over a few beers to make themselves look like an insider (Washington is full of such people), for one.

Yesterday, we had people asserting that there is a RICO indictment against the Republican Party, that the Republicans were already preparing for a Hatch presidency, that "dozens" of subpoenas were about to be served yesterday by an "armada-like" force (in fact one was served with no clear tie given yet to any particular investigation), that there are 19 sealed indictments, including one for Paul Ryan. On and on...

What purpose does all this serve other than to make us act like the other side? The truth is on our side, let's be patient enough to let it develop without clouding it with conjecture.

And yes, Mensch has some reliability issues. Feel free to research it.

[byronius]

27. Lots of hyperbole in your statement, and very similar in tone to another poster.

If this is really your 'issue', go for it. People with basic critical thinking skills need not listen.

But really, kudos, you're good at this. It's impressive.

Thoughtful. Well-strategized.

[byronius]

24. Uhhh, wait up a second.

FBI said nothing. FBI just raided, with a substantial force, a PAC that has deep ties to Manafort and Stone.

Washington Post's source on the raid was the victim, not the FBI. That PAC funnels money to every GOP candidate there is.

Plus, things are moving very fast behind the scenes. I won't discount Taylor's still-possibly-accurate tweet until a few weeks have passed and nothing has happened.

If the intelligence community has nothing or if they are unwilling to act, this is all going to end in brutal and bloody civil war. Because the KGOP has no boundaries. They're gathering strings. They will pull them as soon as they have them in their bloody hands. And this country is going to disintegrate, because WE'RE NOT FUCKING BOLIVIA OR 1934 GERMANY.

We have a tradition here of NOT GOING QUIETLY INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT. They will have to kill us all.

And they're going to try.

So pardon me for hoping that all that fucking money I paid to the NSA's gigantic fucking Black Budget was actually well spent. Because if it wasn't, we're all going to be required to stand and fight.

Better hope Mensch and Taylor are right. It's blood in the streets if they're not.

[world wide wally]

10. One seemingly very effective tactic Trump uses is making his voice sound more assetive

when he lies.. He almost sounds like he is the boss and he is going to be angry if you don't believe him. Take note of his inflection and volume and urgency in his voice and watch what happens when he lies.
He also backs it up with reassuring statements like "this I can tell you", or "believe me" sometimes, but not always.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

16. He also speaks cryptically. Insinuations, partial sentences, threatening sounding inferences.

All paired with that ugly face of his and his grimacing and eye-rolling punctuation. All of this is suggestive but not specific, no details. His fat and greasy followers can interpret him according to their existing beliefs.

[NewJeffCT]

17. very good points

by Mr Fry. I also think that Trump himself has such a bad memory that whatever comes out of his mouth when he speaks is what he believes to be true.

[Wounded Bear]

21. It's colloquially known as self awareness...

not a lot of that allowed in RW land. And none in the Trump White House.

[Towlie]

23. tl;dr: Their sense of impairment is impaired.

[askyagerz]

25. Ignorance is bliss...

[BSdetect]

29. Another word for deplorables coud be igorants

Spelling error as in "morans".

[TheBlackAdder]

30. My mother used to always say, "The more you know, the more you realize how little you know."

.

This is all relative to these ignorants.

They live in a world of little knowledge, and compare their life with those around them. If someone is smart, they are somehow "the other" and a threat to their little ecosystem.

I liken it to those Tiara Moms. They are the trashiest people I can think of on television, yet they all call themselves "classy." They might be "classy" to the rest of the tiara moms or their perception of the world they live in, but to the rest of us, they come off as abhorrent as a dung beetle rolling a new turd ball for their young-ins.


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