Trump’s War on Thinking and Democracy or The Glitch Ate My Homework
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has 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
Thinking is an exercise and enterprise that is too painful for most people which is why most people in this country can’t, don’t, or won’t bother to take the time or make an effort to do so….
The void and vacuum created in the abject absence of meaningful and substantive thought will always be filled by the Hitler’s and Trump’s of the world.
It took a good deal of enlightened thinking to create the United States of America. It has and will take a good deal more of enlightened thinking to sustain and maintain the principles upon which the very idea of this country is predicated……
Ignorance, stupidity, and incompetence will prevail in the absence of critical thinking, not common sense thinking or problem solving thinking but the kind of thinking that is rooted in native intelligence and intellectual endeavor….
Without this, the inmates will continue to run the asylum and the idiots will continue to run the country….
“As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron.”
——H. L. Mencken
The phrase “white privelege” isn’t broad or expansive enough to cover the full range of the social, political, economic, psychological, and emotional impact and consequences of centuries of race based subjugation and slavery.
The fact that historically, white supremacy and white privilege over determine the positive life outcomes and life chances of white folks relative to black and brown people is one of the most consistent and repeated findings in all of the social sciences.
Too many white people, particularly the ones who voted for Trump, believe the hype and myths about who they are and what they’re about.
Therefore, they must cling to the narratives of Manifest Destiny, the White Man’s Burden, and, more recently, American Exceptionalism. It is because they cannot reconcile their racism and racist impulses and reflexes with their democratic “principles” and egalitarian “ideals”, that they continue to behave as though the Civil War is still in progress.
As a result, too many white folks are, of necessity, politically, socially, economically, culturally, psychologically, emotionally, morally, ethically, and intellectually bipolar, ambivalent, and conflicted when it comes to matters of race.
Hence the belief that it’s permissible and acceptable to be of one mind publicly, and of another (the opposite) privately.
Trump has given voice to those who have grown weary of trying to maintain the false and duplicitous façade, and the untenable and unsustainable belief that they can be in favor of equality while wallowing in white privilege and denial.
Overt displays and manifestations of hatred and bigotry will continue to escalate as “normalization” takes hold among those who are able to isolate and insulate themselves because they have enough money not to be concerned about not having enough money.
As for the remainder of the less well informed and less well financially situated adherents of the Trump approach to government, they are the very people he has constantly and continuously screwed over. And yet 40% of the population continues to support him against their own best interests…
The very sad part of all this is, that as long as he continues to keep them focused on their racism and bigotry with the sleight of hand misdirection of smoke screen issues like religious travel bans and exclusions, racist walls and deportations, they’ll continue to buy into the supremely fraudulent notion that he’s making it great to be white in America again.
25% of this post got deleted or dropped when I hit “publish”.
Alan’s ‘glitch’ ate my homework!
08/11/2020 @ 10:03 am
One paradox here is that those who favor American Exceptionalism don’t understand what’s exceptional about America and it is the opposite of what they value. The most exceptional thing about America is that ethnicity has nothing to do with being American unless you’re Native American. America’s biggest failures come from ignoring this principle. There are other nations of which this is true, including (in theory) the Western Hemisphere, Australia, and New Zealand, but the US is the only really major nation of which it’s true and is by far the one that attracts the most immigration.
One thing we are seeing right now is a reversal for part of this. What COVID is showing is that ignoring expertise is horribly expensive, as is a weak central government.
08/11/2020 @ 10:31 am
@Koshersalaami;
The real danger here is that 40% of the population doesn’t care about expertise or competence…
The sickness is that they would give the idiot- in- chief four more years…
08/11/2020 @ 11:58 am
This comment has been reinserted for conversational continuity…
Koshersalaami
08/11/2020 @ 11:21 AM [EDIT]
The trick is to get that number below 40%. It doesn’t have to be less than 40% caring about competence. It has to be less than 40% supporting Trump. They can desert him for another reason.
08/11/2020 @ 10:58 am
Watching the news this morning, I saw some discussion about children testing positive since the end of last month. I think the number is around 97,000. Currently, there is a sort of disagreement about whether kids are susceptible to the Covid-19, or how badly they are affected, etc. Watching this confusion in the Information Age is mind boggling. Everyone understand that as kids return to school that they come down with colds and flus. Those are corona viruses. Somehow this particular one is supposed to be different. We are amazingly stupid about this. The idea that it can be politicized is testament to the fact that humanity is far less intelligent than we probably all assumed. The people you quoted are right. Earth is a short bus.
08/11/2020 @ 11:32 am
Bitey
We do know that COVID doesn’t hurt young children as much as it does the rest of the population. We’re not sure why. However, that has nothing to do with contagion – even if their symptoms are less severe, they’re just as capable as spreading it to their families, who will have more severe symptoms.
That’s the only factor that makes this line of thinking mildly less stupid-ass than it looks. As to the rest of it, what we’re looking at is less stupidity than cognitive dissonance. Ron quoted someone the other day as saying that it’s hard to get someone to believe something when it’s in their financial interest not to believe it. That’s the case here, both politically and financially. Now, it takes a capacity to lie to oneself that you or I can’t relate to, but that’s the capacity that’s at issue.
08/11/2020 @ 11:54 am
@Koshersalaami;
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Upton Sinclair
08/11/2020 @ 1:31 pm
Actually, the information on that is not complete. Children are subject to different aspects of disease from adults. One example is the organ inflammation, or something. We still don’t know enough about how this virus affects adults or children. And, like you said, the issue goes beyond what it does to individuals because of the contagion. The highest level of decision makers in government, and many individuals will consider one aspect, but not both. All of those who claim that it is their right to risk getting ill are not even taking into account the aspect of being carriers. This feels like watching bugs fly into bug zappers, wondering why they don’t learn.
08/11/2020 @ 12:07 pm
@Bitey;
“…humanity is far less intelligent than we probably all assumed…”
This is not an easy or comfortable conclusion to reach…
It is extremely difficult to avoid being thought of as condescending when most of the world’s population functions at much lower levels of intellectual capacity…
08/11/2020 @ 1:24 pm
I think it goes beyond intellectual capacity. I think we are a collection of immature adults who reason very poorly. You can observe it in a variety of ways…people doing problem solving. For example, the ways in which people drive automobiles exhibits very poor reasoning, with more than sufficient intellectual capacity. People drive far faster than they should for the circumstances, and change lanes far too often, which delivers no results whatsoever. People tend to drive faster when fuel gets low, which is ridiculous. People like to keep tanks on full as much as possible, when keeping it on half full improves efficiency. There is an amazing amount of superstition. And lately we are seeing an aggressive anti-science trend which was not as pronounced in previous decades. I think the current evolution status of human is wrestling with certain sub-rational aspects of our decision infrastructure that often goes unnoticed and unchallenged.
08/11/2020 @ 4:43 pm
@Bitey;
“…we are a collection of immature adults who reason very poorly….”
Most people don’t attempt to “reason” at all. And, those who don’t or can’t “reason” are hostile towards those who do…Thus, anti-intellectualism .
“…ways in which people drive automobiles exhibits very poor reasoning, with more than sufficient intellectual capacity…”
In my view, people who can’t distinguish between a right and a privilege don’t have sufficient intellectual capacity to be given the authorization to drive a car…
Your automobile example has at least three components re the required intellectual acumen:
1. Operating a motor vehicle…
2. Operating a motor vehicle on the road in traffic..
3. Management of automotive citizenship…
There may be and probably are more but there certainly aren’t less…
As an extension of the horse and buggy the automobile is a technological marvel and societal game changer that most people’s minds haven’t or can’t absorb….
I would venture to say that the people who operated the horse and buggy were conceptually and functionally much better at it back then than the people who operate motor vehicles today…