10-08-2018, 11:55 AM
(10-08-2018, 02:35 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote: I don't reject science or education. I don't worship it. I don't view it as being the all mighty or a guiding force of mankind or morality. I don't view it as the governing body that has the power to dictate, determine the course of action and decides what gets eliminated or drastically changed and determines the means and determines the instruments that will be used to enforce its laws that get imposed to address issues relating to lives of people and all of mankind either.
So, you can say what you want to say about reds based on limited knowledge or the limited knowledge that most blues today seem to have of the reds these days but when you do that you shouldn't be offended or upset when the majority of them reject you or your ignorant/arrogant view of them or the blues worldview. (stereotypes and sexist material redacted)
Science solves problems. Educated people fare better in work and even in enjoying leisure than do people with lesser education. I might not have done as well vocationally as my educational level might suggest, but I can certainly choose inexpensive ways to entertain myself. I go to museums and parks instead of to casinos and strip clubs. That's not a moral choice; that is a rational assessment of cost and benefit. I recognize the emptiness of glitz. I can spend less on a vacation and enjoy it. Should I go to Hawaii some time I will not stay at the most expensive hotels, but instead at one within walking distance from an accessible beach. I can walk, dammit, and if a resort area is so great I am not going to spend much time in a hotel or guzzling over-priced mass-market beer at the bar! Now if I am in a dreary place where there is nothing to do I might stay cooped up in the hotel and spend money on somewhat better beer.
But nonetheless -- the right-wing political operatives are mostly well-educated people knowledgeable about the dark techniques of psychological manipulation of unsophisticated people. Those operatives know that someone like I can see through it. When President Trump says, "I love low-information voters!" he practically confesses that he depends upon gulling people. Trump's people know that they are doing a con job, and the questions are how long they can get away with the con job and how much they can get out of it.
Polls suggest that most Americans are sick of President Trump and the Republican party. Of course we will get definitive proof in November.
Am I arrogant about being better educated than others? Hardly! I would prefer that people be more aware -- that they know more about economics, psychology, philosophy, and history. They would then be less vulnerable to demagogues of the Right and the Left. Many Trump voters seem like just the types to fall for an Hugo Chavez.
Science and education do not need worship. It's ignorance that demands undue reverence.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.