Anti-intellectualism Is Killing America - Psychology Today
America is killing itself through its embrace and exaltation of ignorance, and the evidence is all around us. Dylann Roof, the Charleston shooter who used race as a basis for hate and mass murder, is just the latest horrific example. Many will correctly blame Roof's actions on America's culture of racism and gun violence, but it's time to realize that such phenomena are directly tied to the nation's culture of ignorance.
In a country where a sitting congressman told a crowd that evolution and the Big Bang are lies straight from the pit of hell, (link is external) where the chairman of a Senate environmental panel brought a snowball (link is external) into the chamber as evidence that climate change is a hoax, where almost one in three citizens cant name the vice president (link is external), it is beyond dispute that critical thinking has been abandoned as a cultural value. Our failure as a society to connect the dots, to see that such anti-intellectualism comes with a huge price, could eventually be our downfall.
In considering the senseless loss of nine lives in Charleston, of course racism jumps out as the main issue. But isnt ignorance at the root of racism? And its true that the bloodshed is a reflection of America's violent, gun-crazed culture, but it is only our aversion to reason as a society that has allowed violence to define the culture. Rational public policy, including policies that allow reasonable restraints on gun access, simply isn't possible without an informed, engaged, and rationally thinking public.
Some will point out, correctly, that even educated people can still be racists, but this shouldnt remove the spotlight from anti-intellectualism. Yes, even intelligent and educated individuals, often due to cultural and institutional influences, can sometimes carry racist biases. But critically thinking individuals recognize racism as wrong and undesirable, even if they arent yet able to eliminate every morsel of bias from their own psyches or from social institutions. An anti-intellectual society, however, will have large swaths of people who are motivated by fear, susceptible to tribalism and simplistic explanations, incapable of emotional maturity, and prone to violent solutions. Sound familiar?
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201506/anti-intellectualism-is-killing-america
elleng
(131,928 posts)underthematrix
(5,811 posts)as part of his new southern strategy
SamKnause
(13,171 posts)News and political junkies are very aware of the
attack on education and the rewriting of history.
We know the damage charter schools are causing.
We are sickened that our tax dollars fund charter
schools.
We are nauseated that the boundary between
church and state is being fought in public schools.
We are outraged that the majority of our public school books
come from the state of Texas.
The 'powers that be' are intentionally destroying this
country from within.
It is sickening to watch it unfold.
Sunk in Tupelo
(66 posts)Simply put, it is greed. It is the enemy within and it is destroying the USA.
SamKnause
(13,171 posts)An uneducated population is easier to control.
They are robbing us blind but the majority of
the population do not seem to notice.
I try to keep my family and friends informed.
They call me when they have questions.
The internet is an awesome tool !!!!
I have learned so much from watching documentaries, speeches, lectures, and debates.
If I am not watching a video on the internet, I am reading the news articles on the
internet.
tblue
(16,350 posts)Why are we stuck with these people?
Igel
(35,450 posts)And anybody can sign up at DU.
(That's the kind of article that could be rewritten to look at the same problem on the left. Anti-vaxxers? Anti-GMO? Simplistic solutions, sometimes violent and often emotion-based. Lack of perspective and an inability to think critically about what's accepted and believed. Feynman said correctly that the easiest person for a person to deceive is himself because that's the person he most wants to believe is right. I'd add that the next group most likely to deceive us are those who we agree with or want to feel solidarity with, for the same reasons. It's easy to think critically, but not impartially, about views in opposition to your own. Argumentation involved to achieve victory; truth is a possible side effect.)
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)Edited to add: Then there was Albert Einstein:
MisterP
(23,730 posts)Response to Sunk in Tupelo (Original post)
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