>So not dumb-dumb, but dumb for all intents and purposes of making decisions in a democracy? What's the difference?
The difference I tried to explain is the difference between dumb and unskilled. We as a society don't value the skills of information and media literacy and those skills are withering in the population at large. We could easily address this problem if we chose to do so.
>And if anti semitic arguments are so unfairly effective, why hasn't it won?
>Bias-motivated crimes based on race, religion, disability and gender all increased. The FBI reported that anti-Black hate crimes increased by 16 percent, from 1,739 incidents in 2016 to 2,013 incidents in 2017. Hate crimes targeting Black people represented 28 percent of all reported hate crimes in 2017. Every other racial and ethnic group also saw increases in the number of reported hate crimes in 2017.
>Additionally, hate crimes motivated by anti-religious bias increased 23 percent, largely driven by a 37 percent increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes, which constituted the majority of religion motivated hate crimes. Hate crimes motivated by bias against people with disabilities increased by a disturbing 66 percent and hate crimes motivated by gender bias increased by 48 percent.
> The difference I tried to explain is the difference between dumb and unskilled. We as a society don't value the skills of information and media literacy and those skills are withering in the population at large. We could easily address this problem if we chose to do so.
I understand the distinction you were trying to explain, but I don't see how it's relevant. You're still saying "we as a society" can't do the critical democratic task of making good choices based on available information, because we're "unskilled" at information or something.
To repeat noego's original question: If that's how you feel about the average person, why do you still favor democracy?
> It is winning, hate crime rates are climbing
That's a pretty broad definition of "winning". Antisemitic ideas and actions have gone from a small minority far from the mainstream, to a slightly less small minority far from the mainstream. This is the catastrophe that you're willing to sacrifice freedom of speech to avert?
The difference I tried to explain is the difference between dumb and unskilled. We as a society don't value the skills of information and media literacy and those skills are withering in the population at large. We could easily address this problem if we chose to do so.
>And if anti semitic arguments are so unfairly effective, why hasn't it won?
It is winning, hate crime rates are climbing: https://www.hrc.org/blog/new-fbi-statistics-show-alarming-in...
>Bias-motivated crimes based on race, religion, disability and gender all increased. The FBI reported that anti-Black hate crimes increased by 16 percent, from 1,739 incidents in 2016 to 2,013 incidents in 2017. Hate crimes targeting Black people represented 28 percent of all reported hate crimes in 2017. Every other racial and ethnic group also saw increases in the number of reported hate crimes in 2017.
>Additionally, hate crimes motivated by anti-religious bias increased 23 percent, largely driven by a 37 percent increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes, which constituted the majority of religion motivated hate crimes. Hate crimes motivated by bias against people with disabilities increased by a disturbing 66 percent and hate crimes motivated by gender bias increased by 48 percent.