Wisdom of Crowds?

There is no such thing as the wisdom of crowds (compare this to What is the “Flag” button?) – people belong to groups and hang together as groups: age groups, political groups, national groups, Internet groups, to mention a few. Individuals are constantly influenced by their respective groups and the media produced by those groups and therefore do not make independent decisions. And when the data are suspect (as is often the case in field studies of society at large), statistics are fruitless.

I am turned off by the intimidation, insolence, cronyism, and autocracy on the Internet. They are rooted in fascism. (Fascism: “A political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism”))

Technorati tags: groups, politics, censorship

Original post by David Ledbetter