Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Stranger on February 28, 2017, 10:13:35 AM

Title: How internet porn caused the rise of Donald Trump
Post by: Stranger on February 28, 2017, 10:13:35 AM
Article in The Guardian science section:-

How internet porn caused the rise of Donald Trump (https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2017/feb/27/how-internet-porn-caused-the-rise-of-donald-trump)
Title: Re: How internet porn caused the rise of Donald Trump
Post by: Robbie on February 28, 2017, 05:07:57 PM
I read that. Seems to be stretching a point but some truth in it.
Title: Re: How internet porn caused the rise of Donald Trump
Post by: Stranger on March 01, 2017, 12:47:27 PM
Well, I thought it was a fun way to make quite a serious point (entirely contained in the last section):-

Quote from: http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2017/feb/27/how-internet-porn-caused-the-rise-of-donald-trump
But isn’t this claim … ridiculous?

Of course it is. No part of this argument stands up to scrutiny. It’s just a smattering of basic neuroscience combined with a very simplistic (and somewhat harsh maybe) portrayal of pornography...
...
This article just is an example of how easy it is to create a valid-sounding theory by forming a conclusion and reverse engineering it, cherry-picking things that back it up from the vast amount of data available. I cynically picked porn and Trump because those are two extremely popular search terms right now, so people are more likely to read it, but it could have been anything: how renewable energy lead to Labour’s Copeland by-election defeat. How feminism caused the Oscars announcement chaos.
Title: Re: How internet porn caused the rise of Donald Trump
Post by: Udayana on March 01, 2017, 01:00:39 PM
Well ... I never watch internet porn ... so it was obviously rubbish. 

The power of logical thinking! ;D
Title: Re: How internet porn caused the rise of Donald Trump
Post by: Rhiannon on March 01, 2017, 07:18:47 PM
I like it. It's a good article.

I think when it comes to unsettling events one reason we seek an explanation is that we want to stop it from happening again.