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- May 13, 2017
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“There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It’s the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility.” I think we can readily distinguish the Trump supporter in that paragraph.
“The rise of idiot America today represents--for profit mainly, but also and more cynically, for political advantage in the pursuit of power--the breakdown of a consensus that the pursuit of knowledge is a good. It also represents the ascendancy of the notion that the people whom we should trust the least are the people who best know what they are talking about. In the new media age, everybody is an expert.” No crime against that. Trump has brought WWE to politics. That appeals to kids and servile dullards. Trump supporters are obedient easily entertained morons.
“There’s a pervasive suspicion of rights, privileges, knowledge and specialization. The very mission of universities has changed. We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get jobs.” Acquisitive success is the No. 1 goal of today’s ignoramus / savage where the purchase of fungible goods defines the character, standing and very being of the dull-witted consumer. They have pride in Chevy or Apple or Coke or Walmart. Certainly no esteem exists in their own intellectual pursuits.
· After leading the world for decades in 25-34 year olds with university degrees, the U.S. is now in 12th place.
· The World Economic Forum ranked the U.S. at 52nd among 139 nations in the quality of its university math and science instruction in 2010.;
· [O]nly 28% of high school science teachers consistently follow the National Research Council guidelines on teaching evolution, and 13% of those teachers explicitly advocate creationism or "intelligent design;"
· 18% of Americans still believe that the sun revolves around the earth, according to a Gallup poll;
· 74% of Republicans in the U.S. Senate and 53% in the House of Representatives deny the validity of climate change;
· 68% of public school children in the U.S. do not read proficiently by the time they finish third grade.;
· arely 50% of students are ready for college level reading when they graduate;
· And more than 40% of Americans under 44 did not read a single book--fiction or nonfiction--over the course of a year.;
· 42 percent of Americans still believe God created human beings in their present form less than 10,000 years ago;
· 25 percent of public school biology teachers believe that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the earth simultaneously.
“We’re creating a world of dummies. Angry dummies who feel they have the right, the authority and the need not only to comment on everything, but to make sure their voice is heard above the rest, and to drag down any opposing views through personal attacks, loud repetition and confrontation. … the herd mentality takes over online; the anti-intellectuals become the metaphorical equivalent of an angry lynch mob when anyone either challenges one of the mob beliefs or posts anything outside the mob’s self-limiting set of values.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...-intellectualism-and-the-dumbing-down-america
The obvious solution to this trend is crushing the ego in a pursuit of knowledge. Dialectical reasoning can help. I believe in ‘a’ but what if ‘not a’ is or could be the answer? Would I hold dear my support of Trump if the shoe were on the other foot and Hillary Clinton had the history of fraud, theft, money laundering, lying, sexual assault, bullying, etc., etc.? That is a hint and a taste that can open up your world. The difference between being and becoming . . . something else, instead of what you are, which is a frightened follower.
“The rise of idiot America today represents--for profit mainly, but also and more cynically, for political advantage in the pursuit of power--the breakdown of a consensus that the pursuit of knowledge is a good. It also represents the ascendancy of the notion that the people whom we should trust the least are the people who best know what they are talking about. In the new media age, everybody is an expert.” No crime against that. Trump has brought WWE to politics. That appeals to kids and servile dullards. Trump supporters are obedient easily entertained morons.
“There’s a pervasive suspicion of rights, privileges, knowledge and specialization. The very mission of universities has changed. We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get jobs.” Acquisitive success is the No. 1 goal of today’s ignoramus / savage where the purchase of fungible goods defines the character, standing and very being of the dull-witted consumer. They have pride in Chevy or Apple or Coke or Walmart. Certainly no esteem exists in their own intellectual pursuits.
· After leading the world for decades in 25-34 year olds with university degrees, the U.S. is now in 12th place.
· The World Economic Forum ranked the U.S. at 52nd among 139 nations in the quality of its university math and science instruction in 2010.;
· [O]nly 28% of high school science teachers consistently follow the National Research Council guidelines on teaching evolution, and 13% of those teachers explicitly advocate creationism or "intelligent design;"
· 18% of Americans still believe that the sun revolves around the earth, according to a Gallup poll;
· 74% of Republicans in the U.S. Senate and 53% in the House of Representatives deny the validity of climate change;
· 68% of public school children in the U.S. do not read proficiently by the time they finish third grade.;
· arely 50% of students are ready for college level reading when they graduate;
· And more than 40% of Americans under 44 did not read a single book--fiction or nonfiction--over the course of a year.;
· 42 percent of Americans still believe God created human beings in their present form less than 10,000 years ago;
· 25 percent of public school biology teachers believe that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the earth simultaneously.
“We’re creating a world of dummies. Angry dummies who feel they have the right, the authority and the need not only to comment on everything, but to make sure their voice is heard above the rest, and to drag down any opposing views through personal attacks, loud repetition and confrontation. … the herd mentality takes over online; the anti-intellectuals become the metaphorical equivalent of an angry lynch mob when anyone either challenges one of the mob beliefs or posts anything outside the mob’s self-limiting set of values.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...-intellectualism-and-the-dumbing-down-america
The obvious solution to this trend is crushing the ego in a pursuit of knowledge. Dialectical reasoning can help. I believe in ‘a’ but what if ‘not a’ is or could be the answer? Would I hold dear my support of Trump if the shoe were on the other foot and Hillary Clinton had the history of fraud, theft, money laundering, lying, sexual assault, bullying, etc., etc.? That is a hint and a taste that can open up your world. The difference between being and becoming . . . something else, instead of what you are, which is a frightened follower.
