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Why bad ideas refuse to die

Poole, Steven
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/28/why-bad-ideas-refuse-die

Publisher:  The Guardian
Date Written:  28/06/2016
Year Published:  2016  
Resource Type:  Article

How disproven or easily dismissed ideas and beliefs can still endure in the population.

Abstract: 

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Excerpts:

Many ideas have been brilliantly upgraded or repurposed for the modern age, and their revival seems newly compelling. Some ideas from the past, on the other hand, are just dead wrong and really should have been left to rot. When they reappear, what is rediscovered is a shambling corpse. These are zombie ideas. You can try to kill them, but they just won’t die. And their existence is a big problem for our normal assumptions about how the marketplace of ideas operates.

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One of the paradoxes of zombie ideas, though, is that they can have positive social effects. The answer is not necessarily to suppress them, since even apparently vicious and disingenuous ideas can lead to illuminating rebuttal and productive research. Few would argue that a commercial marketplace needs fraud and faulty products. But in the marketplace of ideas, zombies can actually be useful. Or if not, they can at least make us feel better. That, paradoxically, is what I think the flat-Earthers of today are really offering - comfort.
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