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Learning environments, like news, should exercise critical thinking for viewers. Instead, a la Neil postman’s entertaining ourselves to death, our news sources have turned to entertainment and inaccurate information in order to manipulate. With repetition of consumption of news, in this largely devoid of critical thinking fashion, viewers will recall memories from that environment, that show, and ignore critical evidence based thinking.
Ask a car mechanic friend who identifies as republican, a vehicle related issue and they will blow you away with their knowledge, calling on memories from prior repairs and utilizing critical thinking. Now ask that same person a political question, one with evidence that shakes their current belief, and they aren’t as likely to utilize that critical thinking they expressed with the car question with repair memories, instead they call upon memories from their news show, devoid of critical thinking.
People heavily identifying with groups like MAGA, they can feel disassociation, loss of identity, symptoms similar to leaving a community web, when they learn their group may be harming them, and struggle to really internalize that evidence backed response regarding politics.
With the fairness doctrine repealed (deregulated news), taxes reduced (resource/wealth imbalance across our socioeconomic spectrum, and citizens united (enabling money from wealthy and corporations to corrupt politics), we face a divided nation, done so slowly overtime, like a frog in a boiling pot. We don’t notice the small changes overtime until we come to a headwind like we are all feeling.
Housing, cost of groceries, cost of living overall, is causing various symptoms, like Luigi, Trumps 4 or so attempts.
Below is a summary of what we face in our nation:
Education system and economic system. Ignorance is only one part of the picture.
I’m so fucking tired of this easy answer.
Ignorance is not what makes people endorse fascism. It’s disinformation. It’s emotional manipulation. It’s conservatism, as a worldview. There’s a lot of really smart people who are gleefully participating in this ongoing atrocity. They have college degrees. They didn’t get them from places run by Nazis. They didn’t grow up blissfully unaware of World War II. If you explain to them, in detail, that this is what fascism is, and what they’re doing is what Nazis were hanged for, they would simply generate excuses for how this is different and nuh uh and it’s your fault.
I like to think that good education can help make people resistant to the emotional siren call of fascism and other “my in-group is best fuck you” problems.
Yep. Plenty of brilliant engineers working for Boston Dynamics or Lockheed just gleefully developing killbots and weapon systems almost solely because it is cutting edge tech and because all that matters to them is the question of “can?” and never “should?” It’s probably the only real kind of ‘autism’ that anyone should really be afraid of, not whatever bs RFK Jr is spouting.
But isn’t that the real problem? School shouldn’t train you to be a mindless follower who simply obeys orders and consumes endlessly. That mindset is exactly what got us into this situation in the first place.
‘School alone won’t fix this.’
‘So it’s school’s fault?’
Jesus, people.
You highlight issues directly connected to how schools and universities are teaching obedience and following orders. When was the last time a college professor genuinely appreciated being corrected by a student? I’m not just talking about schools, iam talking about the education system as a whole which isn’t really teaching critical thinking and that’s not a bug its a feature in a capitalistic system that treats their citizen like cattle and now its backfiring because of the increasing disinformation campaigns and growing influence of adversaries. It seems there may have been a misunderstanding of my original point, but to be fair, expressing myself in a way that is well understood is my handicap, i hope i could clarify.
Veey much yes. Trump, notably awful though he might be, is not a cause - he’s an effect.
Though I’d say the cause is a bit more deeply rooted than poor education, and that that too is more of an effect.
The cause is the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a relative few, the generally loathsome qualities of those relative few, and the warped, destructive systems they have, in their loathsomeness implemented to protect and expand their wealth and power.
Hierarchical systems tend to favor those who are relatively unconstrained by morals, principles, integrity or empathy - they’re more willing and able to do absolutely whatever it takes to succeed. Which is how we end up with a system in which virtually every high-ranking executive or politician is a toxic asshole. And being toxic assholes, they tend to use their power and wealth to further their own selfish interests, regardless of the harm done to others, which is most of why we have, among other things, an educational system that turns out idiots who will vote for a toxic asshole.
But it’s not just limited to the high-ranking toxic assholes like Trump and Musk. For example, even if efforts to improve education could make it past the government toxic assholes, they still won’t make it all the way to the classrooms, since the bulk of the resources earmarked for improvements are going to end up being siphoned off by the growing legions of toxic assholes in district administrations, to pay for their own entirely unearned privilege.
Education reform is a noble cause, but it’s going to require a more fundamental shift in American society and culture before it’s going to be really possible. Somehow we need to transition to a system that actually rewards merit rather than rewarding self-interest, amorality, ruthlessness, dishonesty and lack of concern for harm done to others.
The entirety of our governmental systems need full overhauling. This “vote and we’ll get em next time” crap has to stop. Having to fight the same battles year after year with no real progress being made is stupid. For fucks sake women still lack bodily autonomy!
Fix the two party system
does the whole idea of making education for the slowest learning children not work out? I love that they wont leave a child behind, but slowing the learning for them isnt the answer, its more one on one learning with a teacher. Smaller class sizes, more parent involvement (like each parent can take a week off to help in classroom with pay).
I work at an elementary school. Having attended School Boards and several inservice lectures I have come to the conclusion that Parents need to back off the school and let them do their job. The amount of people that try to dictate what their child can and cannot consume is a big reason they fall for misinformation when they are older.
ohh I am not about them interrupting class, I mean they are there to help understand how to teach their child. Plus it would give some oversight that the kids would have to deal with where they cant get away with all the shit they do as there is a second adult in class to witness. Just being active and making part of parenting teaching them again. Most schools (this seems to be in big urban areas) seem to not even issue homework as the child is left on their own to do it and they cant get any help, we need the adults to understand how to figure things out so they can teach too.
As to the idea that the parents would be there to discuss their thoughts on the teaching they would have a better understanding what is really being taught not what facebook is telling them, or even their kid who is just using their parent to get what they want. Better informed and educated adults would help and getting them back in schools for understanding of how to teach could help. Better than what they are doing now which seems to be let the church handle it, and cut all public funding.
Stopping the car before it goes off the broken bridge is a short-term but vital solution if you want to live to fix the bridge. So STFU and step on the goddamn brake alright?
It’ll be an uphill battle with all the GOP trying to destroy education to make more dumb dumbs and the dumb dumbs they already have helping them along.
It’s so much deeper than that. The Democratic Party has sense about the 60’s OPENLY become the party of the well educated professional class. All the Democratic Party does after a loss is talk and talk.
It is the Democratic Party’s own fault someone like Trump got elected and then got elected a 2ND time. When you abdon the majority of your voters and don’t fight for issues they really care about it off you lose voters.
Yes, the education system sucks in America. But most people aren’t willing to vote against there own self interest. Will the Republicans do anything more for them in reality. NO but they say they will and that gets them votes.
I am in no way defending voting for him or defending Trump’s actions. But it’s not like the Republican’s where able to pull a win out of nowhere.
‘You know who I blame for Republicans? Democrats!’
Like conservatives are some force of nature. An animal you can’t blame, because it’s just how they are.
It’s not about who’s to blame. It’s about what it will take to fix a broken system. As long as the Democrats are what they are, Republicans will get away with doing what they do. the whole point is to have a Democratic party that’s capable of winning elections.
