As much as I agree with the general prescription (a better educated public to deal with demagogues), part of the problem has very little to do with education. Many well educated persons are susceptible to the right kind of demagogary just by human nature - certain issues or concepts just cause people to get drummed up a lot easier than others, and it's not a fault of education, but a fault of passion.
We can see this with the "gotcha" videos that are all over social media where you ask voters about the actual issues, completely disassociated from any candidate or rallying cry, and almost all the time you'll end up with more moderate and carefully considered positions.
Education doesn't really have an impact on how susceptible or gullible we are - that's something else that has to be trained and practiced, and the individual has to recognize their susceptibility and be willing to act on it. Education alone does not solve this - consider all the smart persons who believe conspiracy theories - their education in these cases only serves to help them define what they see as logical connections, whereas someone less educated might not be as steadfast because they have less to rely on.
I think James Randi has offered an idea to the effect that "scientists are the easiest to fool because of their education." When someone registers and makes sense in their mind, a mixture of pride and their reasoning process drives them to stick to their guns when they reach a conclusion. Not to pick on anyone in particular, but look at Eric Raymond (ERS) and his blog - certainly a bright guy by many metrics, but believes absolutely crazy things.
Finally as an aside, one additional problem with education is that the instructors can add their own bias; often people understand this politically, so to use that as an example, consider left or right leaning politics entering education. Instructors speak from authority - what happens when political leanings are attached to actual facts? You have students walking away conflating opinion with fact from an authoritative source, sometimes unable to tell the difference. Omission of what is taught and what is not also affects this.
Demagogary is a complex issue and a bit of education isn't a complete solution. The issue is that people, even educated ones, can choose what they want to listen to, and that is truer now more than ever. Though echo chamber is bandied around as a buzzword now, it is really easy to fall in on that with how current trends for online discussion go. The integration of the social media aspect, voting systems, etc make having plain conversations very hard. Even on HN, which I do enjoy very much since the community by and large is willing to keep discussions civil but honest, has topics where any dissenting opinion is simply dimissed, not discussed.
Education doesn't really have an impact on how susceptible or gullible we are - that's something else that has to be trained and practiced, and the individual has to recognize their susceptibility and be willing to act on it.
The biggest factor in determining whether someone listens to a demagogue, is how well their message aligns with the listener's self interest. This applies to all levels and kinds of education.
Education, while not perfect, tends to lessen our propensity for succumbing to emotional appeals, instill a sense of confidence in our area of study, while simultaneously encouraging humility outside of those areas. Contrary examples abound, to be sure, but these are virtues which are by and large instilled in those with more education.
We can see this with the "gotcha" videos that are all over social media where you ask voters about the actual issues, completely disassociated from any candidate or rallying cry, and almost all the time you'll end up with more moderate and carefully considered positions.
Education doesn't really have an impact on how susceptible or gullible we are - that's something else that has to be trained and practiced, and the individual has to recognize their susceptibility and be willing to act on it. Education alone does not solve this - consider all the smart persons who believe conspiracy theories - their education in these cases only serves to help them define what they see as logical connections, whereas someone less educated might not be as steadfast because they have less to rely on.
I think James Randi has offered an idea to the effect that "scientists are the easiest to fool because of their education." When someone registers and makes sense in their mind, a mixture of pride and their reasoning process drives them to stick to their guns when they reach a conclusion. Not to pick on anyone in particular, but look at Eric Raymond (ERS) and his blog - certainly a bright guy by many metrics, but believes absolutely crazy things.
Finally as an aside, one additional problem with education is that the instructors can add their own bias; often people understand this politically, so to use that as an example, consider left or right leaning politics entering education. Instructors speak from authority - what happens when political leanings are attached to actual facts? You have students walking away conflating opinion with fact from an authoritative source, sometimes unable to tell the difference. Omission of what is taught and what is not also affects this.
Demagogary is a complex issue and a bit of education isn't a complete solution. The issue is that people, even educated ones, can choose what they want to listen to, and that is truer now more than ever. Though echo chamber is bandied around as a buzzword now, it is really easy to fall in on that with how current trends for online discussion go. The integration of the social media aspect, voting systems, etc make having plain conversations very hard. Even on HN, which I do enjoy very much since the community by and large is willing to keep discussions civil but honest, has topics where any dissenting opinion is simply dimissed, not discussed.