The Problem Isnt Just Trump. Its Our Ignorant Electorate.

[pbmus]

For many of us, mornings have taken on a certain nauseating sameness. We roll out from beneath the blankets and, before the scent of coffee has reached our nostrils, we are checking the news feeds for the latest semi-literate tweet coughed up by the ranting, traitorous squatter occupying the Oval Office.

The rest of the day is spent in a kind of horrified suspension, holding our breath, waiting for whatever outrage will inevitably belch forth from the White House—once a bastion of seriousness and decorum, now ground zero for the demise of western democracy. How many lies will Trump spew today? Which dictators will he suck up to? Will he smear a Gold Star family? Attack a woman who dares to call out his smarmy predations? Unveil a puerile, racist nickname for a Senator or member of his own cabinet?

As much as we loathe it, however sickening it might have become, every day seems all about him, a former game show host and real estate failure, a hawker of rot-gut vodka and bullshit degrees from a fraudulent “University” who once styled himself as “the Donald”. The cable news shows lead with his most recent flatulence, the op-ed pages brim with intimations of doom, late night comedians are having a field day.

https://amp.thedailybeast.com/the-problem-isnt-just-trump-its-our-ignorant-electorate

[ProudLib72]

1. You left out the best part

Surveys conducted every two years by the National Science Foundation consistently demonstrate that slightly more than half of Americans reject the settled science concerning human evolution. They are not unaware that virtually all credible scientists accept the overwhelming evidence that we evolved from earlier species. They simply choose not to accept that consensus because it doesn’t comport with their deeply held beliefs. Many also embrace the absurd notion that the earth is only six thousand years old. Astonishingly, in the early 21st century, around a quarter of our citizenry seems unaware that said earth revolves around the sun.

If I typed the way I feel about this (even though I already knew it deep down in my soul), I would be banned forever from DU.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. The ignorance of most Americans is genuinely appalling.

Part of the problem is that our schools fail our students. But the main problem is that religion has far too much of a sway. Religious belief has been allowed to trump science for decades now.

Perhaps more to the point, religion tells its adherents not to question, only to believe blindly what they are told.

Or at least most religions. One of the reasons so many scientists are Jewish is that Judaism, specifically Reform Judaism, encourages thinking and questioning. It understands the difference between the secular world of science and the religious world of belief. Christianity and Islam for the most part don't get that. Yes, there are many scientists who are adherents to either of those two branches, but no scientists who are also fundamentalists.

And if you're taught from the very beginning that you may not question the religious stuff you're taught, it's a very easy leap to not questioning anything a teacher in public school tells you. So you start out with a base line of not questioning, not thinking for yourself. And so when someone comes along who feeds into your prejudices (black people BAD! women EVIL!) you happily flock to him. When climate denial is cloaked as respectable difference of opinion, you now have no way of evaluating what's being said. And so, you fall back on your biases. Face it, most of us are most comfortable with people who are a lot like us, especially if they look like us. Or worship like us. Or attend the same schools as us. It's how those in power stay in power.

With all due respect to all of the very hard working teachers out there, changing things in school so that kids will learn to think for themselves is going to be very difficult.

[pbmus]

3. For sure....

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Thank you so much for posting this.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Actually, most of the kids that are home schooled are

taught by parents whose religious faith is the biggest priority and they do not want their kids exposed to different thoughts, beliefs, ideas, etc.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. While that's probably true about most of them,

I've known a couple who homeschooled for a year or two because of the needs of their particular child.

When my oldest was very young I gave serious thought to homeschooling, and realized that I would not be good at that. But I often tell new parents that they need to give serious thought to homeschooling, not because that's what they should do, but if they think about it, they will then figure out what they want from the conventional school system for their kid.

I'm glad I considered it. I must repeat that I would have been a TERRIBLE home schooling mom. But what I was good at was enriching my kids' lives. I also had the very good fortune to be able to afford to send them off on summer programs that were wonderful. But had I not had those resources I would have done my best with them at home.

The genuinely sad and scary thing about not wanting their kids exposed to different thoughts, beliefs, ideas, etc. is that those kids then grow up in a profound ignorance. It's one thing to have a strong belief system and to reject others. It's another thing entirely to being completely ignorant of other possibilities.

[misanthrope]

9. More plainly

Superstition is favored over science. Irrational faith undermines critical thought.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Yes. It's an enormous problem in this country.

I do not care very much what others have as their spiritual beliefs. I myself have some very non-rational beliefs that I tend to keep to myself. But those beliefs do not in any way interfere with my understanding of science and the rational world.

It does help a great deal that my son is currently in a PhD program in astronomy. I talk to him frequently about astronomy, the cosmos, and so on. I joke to my friends that if you have trouble falling asleep just call me up and I'll start talking about these things.

Personally I find it very easy to have certain non-rational beliefs and to be thoroughly grounded in the real world of astronomy, physics, chemistry, and so on. They do not contradict each other. I find the real world to be incredibly amazing. Well, to be honest, I find my non-rational world to be equally amazing, but I have no need to "prove" that or to convince anyone else of my somewhat strange beliefs. Which I expect is what makes me (and anyone else like me) different from the common run of ordinary believers. So many of them are completely invested in convincing everyone else that their take on reality is the only one and that everyone else must believe as they do. I don't. I'm somewhat bemused to realize that others don't see the world as I do, but that's not a big deal.

I suppose, to come back to your post, my irrational faith does not undermine critical thought.

[misanthrope]

12. If you look at the religious institutions formed around irrational beliefs

most of them emphasize the spread of those irrational beliefs as a cornerstone of their existence. They seek converts as much as anything else, to the point they threaten others with condemnation to endless agony should they not comply.

[BigmanPigman]

4. Ron Reagan Jr wrote this.

I read it earlier and love him and his opinion is usually the same as mine. Whenever I see him as a guest, usually on Hardball, I make sure to pay attention. I also love his ads for FFRF when he says, "Lifelong atheist and not afraid of burning in Hell".

[demosincebirth]

7. Big problem in working men and women is voting against their best interests because of a single

issue mentality

[LiberalLovinLug]

11. K & R

Preaching to the choir unfortunately, but still worth reading