Low-Information Voters, Elitism, and Responsible Voting

I recently came across an interesting piece by Claire Lehmann on Quillette criticizing the trendy phrase "low-information voters" and I felt compelled to write a brief reply. Lehmann's piece also cites some other really thought-provoking pieces and, in particular, takes on the serendipitously-timed book Against Democracy by Jason Brennan.


Brennan also gave his own rebuttal of Lehmann's critique on Bleeding Heart Libertarians.

My first thoughts after reading Lehmann's piece:

I want to start out by saying that I'm not trying to silence anyone or any point of view. My opinion is that of one person and should be judged as such.

There are numerous points in Ms. Lehmann's piece that deserve further discussion and dissemination. We should definitely talk about cognitive biases and systematically unobserved types of information that give typical Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic individuals like myself a skewed view of the world. The truth is that every demographic group has substantial room for improvement in this regard.

In particular, I feel extremely frustrated at how the protesters at US Berkeley responded to the potential presence of Milo Yiannopoulos on campus. Honestly, it enraged me. I felt like it damaged what I love about this country. More generally, I feel profoundly dissatisfied with the way my fellow US liberals conduct themselves and I devote a fair amount of thought to it. In that, I identify with Ms. Lehmann's point of view.

However, I think she's too fast to dismiss the concept of low-information voters. I think it would be more sensible to broaden the term because it's not about left-right ideology. Just as I feel that the anti-Yiannopoulos protesters at Berkeley used their rights in an irresponsible way, I think many people use their voting rights in an irresponsible way. I'm not saying that we should take away those rights, but I do think that we should have social norms that encourage people to make socially beneficial decisions. I think that includes voting behavior.

To me, this line of argument isn't anti-conservative or anti-liberal, it's anti-ignorance. There's lots of ignorance to go around at the moment. In fact, we're all ignorant about most things. Each of us knows a fair amount about some things and very little about a huge number of other things. A person with knowledge of sociology or physics isn't necessarily less ignorant than a person who knows about fishing or fixing cars. I value what my doctor knows and also what the man who picks up my garbage knows. Their knowledge affects my life and the lives of other people and if they don't inform themselves then they're being irresponsible. Voting affects people's lives too. If we use our voting rights without informing ourselves about the relevant issues and considering them in a thoughtful manner, then we're being irresponsible. But, that's just my opinion.