(Bloomberg Opinion) -- What range of ideas are tolerated in public discourse? How and why do once-forbidden ideas and behavior become tolerated?
Those were some of the questions that led Rex Sorgatz, this week's guest on Masters in Business, to write a book that may have the longest title ever: “The Encyclopedia of Misinformation: A Compendium of Imitations, Spoofs, Delusions, Simulations, Counterfeits, Impostors, Illusions, Confabulations, Skullduggery, Frauds, Pseudoscience, Propaganda, Hoaxes, Flimflam, Pranks, Hornswoggle, Conspiracies & Miscellaneous Fakery.”
Sorgatz explains what the Overton Window is, why we decide not to waste time debunking flat-earthers, whether immigrants are rapists and if there "were very fine people in both sides” of neo-Nazi and white-supremacist rallies.
He began work on the book long before this election cycle; indeed, the word “Trump” only appears in passing in a single footnote. Instead, the book focuses on how easily we allow ourselves to be fooled -- or how we fool ourselves.
Next week, we speak with Barbara E. Kahn, professor of marketing at The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania, author of "The Shopping Revolution: How Successful Retailers Win Customers in an Era of Endless Disruption."
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Barry Ritholtz is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He founded Ritholtz Wealth Management and was chief executive and director of equity research at FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”
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