Myth: Unschooling breeds conspiracy theories

Myth

Myth: When we let children explore the world on their own, there is a risk of their falling victim to conspiracy theories. School is the best remedy

Fact

The opposite is true. School tends to divide the world of information into: (1) the reliable (dished at school) and (2) unreliable (everything else). This dichotomy undermines falsity vigilance. Children at school are accustomed to trust what they learn. They see no need, and have no interest in verifying schooled claims. This becomes a habit that makes the adult vulnerable to fake news (see: 100 bad habits learned at school). Even worse, if toxic memories build around a specific true claim: e.g. the claim that climate change is a survival risk for mankind, all claims that stand in contradiction to those presented at school will act as an antidote to toxicity. Attacking the claims of a hated teacher is a form of relief. This generates an emotional falsity vector that underlies all conspiracy theories!

In contrast, in free learning, the child is accustomed to living in the world of unreliable information. This increases vigilance. This makes it easy to develop a set of preventive tools. This makes information verification a habit. Fake news for a free child is like immunization. Omnipresent falsities are the antigen. Well dosed antigens are a form of vaccination.

Group polarization theory makes it inevitable: we develop competing models of reality and coalesce into camps favoring models participating in model evolution. In conditions of freedom, the accuracy and veracity of a model favors it in the competition. Evolution of models favors the truth.

To prevent conspiracy theories, avoid coercion, avoid propaganda, and avoid censorship

Schooling involves all those vectors that favor conspiracy theories (esp. coercion). School is not a remedy. School is a contributor to the vulnerability to fake news.

For more details see: Myth: School prevents pseudoscientific thinking

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