Mastodawn

K Brandon Bell Mar 28, 2023

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
~ Isaac Asimov

Looking for explanations…Mar 28, 2023

@dgar And another @breadandcircuses

Dgar Mar 28, 2023

@breadandcircuses @Susan60
Did I do something wrong?

Looking for explanations…Mar 28, 2023

@dgar @breadandcircuses No! We’ve been having a conversation along these lines.

Red Mar 28, 2023

@dgar Sadly evidenced by the post truth era where facts often don’t actually make any difference for such a divided society.

BarbaraPittman ☕️💬Mar 28, 2023

@dgar False equation of simplicity with simplemindedness

Dgar Mar 28, 2023

@grinnpidgeon
Issac Asimov was fairly well known to be shallow and thoughtless.

Aaron Mar 28, 2023

@dgar @grinnpidgeon :D Here, you dropped this: /s

shyduroff Mar 28, 2023

@dgar … sigh is not a big enough word …

Jeremy (יעקב) 🇺🇦Mar 28, 2023

One of my all-time favorite essays.

I actually used it with a Flat Earther I knew (really) who decided he wasn't really a Flat Earther after all after reading it.

It's remarkably good and even for anybody with an open mind.

Lingua Franca Mar 28, 2023

@dgar Sputnik jostled us out of our stupid stupor, last time around. Today with prominent people questioning higher education’s value, I hope we don’t lose too much ground before this wave of stupidity ends.

Dgar Mar 28, 2023

@montetrecarte
The US set for themselves an IQ test, which they then proceeded to fail, while the entire world watched. I sometimes wonder what could have been.

Jeff Shaffer CBET, ret Mar 29, 2023

@dgar let’s not forget that the votes for Jill Stein made the difference that allowed tfg to defeat Hillary Clinton. That was stupidly and hubris combined and resulted in millions of unnecessary people dead

Dgar Mar 29, 2023

@CivilityFan
The whole thing obviously looked different from the inside, and several US friends told me as such.
Understand that from here, an ocean away, watching from the outside, it kind of looked like the US had a clear choice, and they chose… wrong.
I mean, if I was the religious type, I’d think a higher power even pointed out the correct choice!

Kevin Leecaster Mar 29, 2023

@dgar @CivilityFan
Nonvoting Americans can be blamed for most of the dysfunction in the USA. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/08/09/new-data-makes-it-clear-nonvoters-handed-trump-the-presidency/

New data makes it clear: Nonvoters handed Trump the presidency

A third of nonvoters were under 30. More than half of voters were over 50.

The Washington Post

Jeff Shaffer CBET, ret Mar 30, 2023

@dgar Enough very progressive voters were swayed to pick an alternate (Jill Stein) b/c Clinton wasn’t left enough, that it changed the outcome to give us tfg. Well meaning but short sighted, since our elections are not parliamentary and the largest vote gets the win, even if the total votes of the opposition favor the other side. Since it’s done on a State by State level, that may change. Alaska used ranked choice voting and was able to keep from electing Sarah Palin for their House Representative for example, and several other jurisdictions use that, too.

Stacy Mar 28, 2023

@dgar I look at movies from when I grew up in the 80s a lot differently now. So many of the popular characters - Bender from 'The Breakfast Club', or basically any character in any John Hughes film that wasn't played by Anthony Michael Hall, and I can automatically identify which characters would grow up to vote MAGA. That 'learning is for geeks' mentality was overwhelming back then. Only nerds studied and did well in school.

Omniscient Orb of Antlers

@dgar this has always been one of my favorite quotes and one of the few I have memorized

Mr. Completely Mar 28, 2023

@dgar Douglas Hofstadter's Pulitzer winning "Anti-intellectualism in American Life" was published in 1963, a highly recommended read

Tang_Fish Mar 28, 2023

@dgar I'm too intellectually challenged to understand this post.

ABrockwell Mar 28, 2023

@dgar Closely related quote from Carl Sagan:

"The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common-denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance."

~ from Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark" (p. 25):

Some writers and scientists have been ringing the alarm bells for a while now.

RiaResists Mar 29, 2023

@dgar true as it ever was.