Just thinking out loud - How did we go from Harvard/Princeton educated president and First Lady to a president that muses about injecting disinfectant and First Lady that posed nude?
How did we get here? How did we reject education in lieu of crack pot theories?
Before we got to the point of the American president becoming a laughing stock of the world by suggesting people may be able to inject disinfectant - education and science somehow - became a dirty bad thing. How?
To the point where our elected officials parrot the most insane conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories have always been around, but for the most part - many people laughed at them. Now they have been elevated to a point of "serious discussion" by some.
What happened? I remember in the early days of the internet when Alex Jones was just some weirdo with a weirdo following. If you had told me 15-20 years ago that he would "rise to prominence", I would have said you hit your head.
Who? The guy with the crazy website going on about chemtrails? Him?
How did so many people come to trust him over education and scientific driven data?
How did Sen Kennedy - after attending the most prestigious universities in the world from Vanderbilt to Oxford- does it get more elite than Oxford?- then turn around at a Trump Rally to tell them he was one of them and rant about about goat milk latte drinking avocado toast eating "elite"?
I was always told by my parents, reading was important, education was important - even though I came from a religious family with their own nutty beliefs, but they always pushed education.
My parents pushed for me to go to the library on Saturdays when I was a young girl, even when I did not want to and preferred staying home to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Of course - back then we did not have a thousand distractions of the internet, video games etc. Reading was always a thing in my house.
I remember, back then, and maybe it was where I grew up, you grew up in a home with limited income - whether you were black or white - education and knowledge was pushed.
Now believing in science, data, facts, expertise is an elite thing?
When did this happen?
How did we get to a place where Anthony Fauci can be dismissed and people prefer to get facts from the likes of Limbaugh and other talk radio.?
Some guy on a talk radio show asked the host if we could get chemicals in our lungs with a vape pen to cure covid 19, the host told him he was thinking out of the box.
This is a headline from an article on the Atlantic last year
Republicans Changed Their Mind About Higher Education Really Quickly
A majority of them no longer think campuses are setting the country on the right course. What happened?
Back in the day, when we did not have the internet, we had the enclyocopedia - lol - I remember my dad having a payment plan for the enclycopedia. OK, I am rambling, so I will end here.
But my point is, back then when you wanted to know something - you looked to people and resources that had knowledge about the thing you wanted to know about.
College was higher education - to me meant it elevated your ability to think critically, educate yourself - not just for a career - but made you a more well rounded person- with the ability to dissect and think through problems.
By the way - this thread is not a promotion that says everyone needs to go to college. The contrary, my dad was a blue collar worker - and financially - my parents will probably be better off financially than I will ever be.
And I am quite aware that even formally educated people have bought into nonsense- I am just a loss sometimes as to how we got here - People believing the most insane things - no ability to critically think through these things to realize its stupidity.
Just wondering out loud.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213345973
How did we get here? How did we reject education in lieu of crack pot theories?
Before we got to the point of the American president becoming a laughing stock of the world by suggesting people may be able to inject disinfectant - education and science somehow - became a dirty bad thing. How?
To the point where our elected officials parrot the most insane conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories have always been around, but for the most part - many people laughed at them. Now they have been elevated to a point of "serious discussion" by some.
What happened? I remember in the early days of the internet when Alex Jones was just some weirdo with a weirdo following. If you had told me 15-20 years ago that he would "rise to prominence", I would have said you hit your head.
Who? The guy with the crazy website going on about chemtrails? Him?
How did so many people come to trust him over education and scientific driven data?
How did Sen Kennedy - after attending the most prestigious universities in the world from Vanderbilt to Oxford- does it get more elite than Oxford?- then turn around at a Trump Rally to tell them he was one of them and rant about about goat milk latte drinking avocado toast eating "elite"?
I was always told by my parents, reading was important, education was important - even though I came from a religious family with their own nutty beliefs, but they always pushed education.
My parents pushed for me to go to the library on Saturdays when I was a young girl, even when I did not want to and preferred staying home to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Of course - back then we did not have a thousand distractions of the internet, video games etc. Reading was always a thing in my house.
I remember, back then, and maybe it was where I grew up, you grew up in a home with limited income - whether you were black or white - education and knowledge was pushed.
Now believing in science, data, facts, expertise is an elite thing?
When did this happen?
How did we get to a place where Anthony Fauci can be dismissed and people prefer to get facts from the likes of Limbaugh and other talk radio.?
Some guy on a talk radio show asked the host if we could get chemicals in our lungs with a vape pen to cure covid 19, the host told him he was thinking out of the box.
This is a headline from an article on the Atlantic last year
Republicans Changed Their Mind About Higher Education Really Quickly
A majority of them no longer think campuses are setting the country on the right course. What happened?
Back in the day, when we did not have the internet, we had the enclyocopedia - lol - I remember my dad having a payment plan for the enclycopedia. OK, I am rambling, so I will end here.
But my point is, back then when you wanted to know something - you looked to people and resources that had knowledge about the thing you wanted to know about.
College was higher education - to me meant it elevated your ability to think critically, educate yourself - not just for a career - but made you a more well rounded person- with the ability to dissect and think through problems.
By the way - this thread is not a promotion that says everyone needs to go to college. The contrary, my dad was a blue collar worker - and financially - my parents will probably be better off financially than I will ever be.
And I am quite aware that even formally educated people have bought into nonsense- I am just a loss sometimes as to how we got here - People believing the most insane things - no ability to critically think through these things to realize its stupidity.
Just wondering out loud.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213345973
