The Dumbing Down of America Points in One Direction--Right

[bobgeese]

The Paris Accord was totally voluntary. You don't want to pay, don't pay. But make the effort.

The rest of your typing? I don't have time for that shit.

The Paris accord was absolutely useless. It was denounced by both the left and the right.

 

[hillelslovak87]

 

[Grenz]

Trickle down economics, is in fact how the world works. Have you ever cashed a check from a poor person?

 

[Big_Chief_Stove]

“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.

Many of the intelligence and preparedness issues you bring up are a result of leftists playing around with equity and political correctness in public schools and universities.

I would however agree that more conservatives need to get on the right side of climate change.

 

[lifelessheap]

How did the mainstream left (would you define that please) corrupt intellectual thought?

I'm very serious. I see no merit to your claim but I'd like to hear you out.

Did you know there are 59 genders?

 

[Burning Hammer]

IIRC, Trump was the Republican candidate - it's not like he ran on an independent platform or something.

Further, compromise and negotiation is part of being a good leader and getting the job done. Trump gives every indication that he thinks his bullying business approach (which is easy to do when you are the guy with the most leverage in a negotiation), will apply to government - which it doesn't. Idiots voted for him thinking he was going to be this anti-establishment guy who was just going to brute force his way into getting what he wanted, when the reality is that having a hard nosed approach is pretty short-sighted and just makes things more difficult.

And while I can understand people saying they voted for him because the alternative was even shittier, this argument often doesn't hold water when the guy is incessantly praised/defended by his supporters. If I'm forced to make a choice between eating dog shit or pig shit, just because one of them may be a little less terrible than the other doesn't mean I'm going to gloat about how wonderful shit tastes.

Sometimes you gotta learn, you just have to like the taste of shit.

 

[VivaRevolution]

“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.

Let me just tell you that after talking to many Hillary supporters during the primary, trying to convert them to Bernie supporters, that this problem is not limited to the right.

Some of the dumb fucking things people said to me for why they supported Hillary was quite eye opening to me.

You would be shocked how many older people told me they were voting for Hilary because they were raised democrat, and they had never heard of any of the other nominees. That isn't any better than the duck dynasty, nascar, proud to be stupid non-sense, that comes from the right.

 

[Der Eisbär]

You're aware that a lot of the lack of education comes from inner cities and minority communities? Blacks have slightly improved educationally over the past 25 years while Hispanics have not.

These are traditionally staunchly democratic groups.

totes brah

 

[Der Eisbär]

When the intellectuals themselves are anti-intellectual on a dozen topics, it makes it hard to take them seriously.

There's some truth to this. The deviation from the scientific method on college campuses and the spread of post modernism has taken a lot of credibility away from our academic institutions.

 

[ripskater]

totes brah

Haters gonna hate

 

[mike sherry]

Stopped reading once partisanship was connected to intelligence... just stop...

i stopped taking it seriously when i read about "the arts and humanities" like they are respectable fields of studies

 

[boomertx]

totes brah

Artwork to make a point? Interesting.

 

[Kframe]

And I'm a non partisan centrist who gets called a liberal snowflake all the time. This place thrives on bipartisan mud slinging. And there's far more posts coming from the right than the left, not that there's even anything wrong with that, it's just silly for anyone to act like a victim.

How can one call themselves a centrist when their views are consistently leftist? I hear it from your type here all the time claiming to be centrists, yet on every issue they are solidly left.

 

[Slick_36]

How can one call themselves a centrist when their views are consistently leftist? I hear it from your type here all the time claiming to be centrists, yet on every issue they are solidly left.

I gave examples in this thread. What about me is "leftist"?

 

[HOLA]

There's some truth to this. The deviation from the scientific method on college campuses and the spread of post modernism has taken a lot of credibility away from our academic institutions.

Please stop. This ubiquitous, nameless, They spreading post-modernism is boogeyman created by people like Jordan Peterson who don't even know what post-modernism is.

 

[Kframe]

I gave examples in this thread. What about me is "leftist"?

You claimed to be conservative on several issues, yet when pressed, you were not. The very issues you claimed to be very conservative on, you are at best just left of center. Claiming to be what you are not just distorts the true meaning of the words "conservative", "Centrist", or "Leftist"

 

[Slick_36]

You claimed to be conservative on several issues, yet when pressed, you were not. The very issues you claimed to be very conservative on, you are at best just left of center. Claiming to be what you are not just distorts the true meaning of the words "conservative", "Centrist", or "Leftist"

So what makes me a "leftist"?

 

[Pinyin]

“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.

you have this all backwards. it is the leftist hollywoood zionist media that has dumbed down the american public. nice try, but your attempt at misdirection here is half assed and without merit. conservatives and or supporters of the POTUS do not form american opinion and they have no control over the minds of americans. that is all in the hands of hollywood, the NYT, WaPo and CNN.

you are either really new to trolling, or you are just stuck in some sort of progressive zionist information bubble.

 

[ripskater]

So what makes me a "leftist"?

You're fine with gay marriage.

I would classify you as left leaning. But not full on leftist like some here.

 

[Kframe]

So what makes me a "leftist"?

Yes. If you are left of center then by definition you are a leftist. Which is interesting as claimed earlier to be "very conservative" on a number of issues.. How do you square this?" Claim to be conservative on some issues, yet on those very issues you are leftist.. How does that thinking work?