> The legislation was prompted by intense lobbying from the group Distracted Operators Risk Casualties (DORCs). The son of its co-founder, Ben Lieberman, was killed in 2011 by a distracted driver in New York. The proposed law has been dubbed "Evan's Law" in memory of 19-year-old Evan Lieberman.
"Think of the children" isn't really what makes some arguments for increased surveillance or safety recalls so astonishingly powerful. It's when people think of their own child or children that laws get passed.
This is scope insensitivity: human brains are just plain bad at comparing millions of abstract unwarranted searches with the thought of their child dying because of a distracted driver. (More on this at http://lesswrong.com/lw/hw/scope_insensitivity/).
This is not a problem caused by a recent or American loss of critical thinking, moderate stances, or reasonability - it's a human, ancient bias. The effect is perhaps amplified because media allows politicians to use bias more effectively, but it is not new.
"Think of the children" isn't really what makes some arguments for increased surveillance or safety recalls so astonishingly powerful. It's when people think of their own child or children that laws get passed.
This is scope insensitivity: human brains are just plain bad at comparing millions of abstract unwarranted searches with the thought of their child dying because of a distracted driver. (More on this at http://lesswrong.com/lw/hw/scope_insensitivity/).
This is not a problem caused by a recent or American loss of critical thinking, moderate stances, or reasonability - it's a human, ancient bias. The effect is perhaps amplified because media allows politicians to use bias more effectively, but it is not new.