Thread by @asymmetricinfo

Endorse my colleague Hank Steuver's argument about Sacha Baron-Cohen's new show. washingtonpost.com/entertainment/…

But I'd also point out something else: that these sorts of "stings" pander to partisan biases about our opponents, because we confuse agreeableness with sincerity.

To unpack this a bit (and this is also a critique of James O'Keefe): most people have a hard time disagreeing with others face to face. When people say crazy things, most adults will nod and smile rather than raise a fuss, particularly with strangers.

Maybe it would be a better world if we all went around calling out each and every instance of lunacy or socially unacceptable ideas. But such call-outs are of dubious effectiveness with strangers, and they take a lot of time and emotional energy, so most people don't.

The fact that Sacha Baron-Cohen is so successful at getting people to do things that will horrify his partisan side is not because all conservatives are secretly horrible; it's because most people are agreeable, or at least feign agreeableness in most social situations.

(I rank pretty low on agreeableness, as I'd guess do most opinion columnists. I still feign it, because over the years I have learned that being disagreeable with strangers is a) disruptive and b) unproductive. Every time I forget, I'm reminded how useful this rule is).

Similarly with James O'Keefe, who is not uncovering the secret rot at the heart of liberalism, but the entirely unsurprising fact that most people, most of the time, see no percentage in starting a fight with a stranger, or cruelly telling them to go away because they're an idiot

Baron-Cohen and O'Keefe's work exploits a loophole in our social instincts. It would be gently funny if used more kindly, as the old "Candid Camera" shows did. As it is, it's completely toxic, because it's a partisan weapon that erodes what little social trust we have left.