Here’s a short video from Elle Cordova that reminds us that science is something of a rarity in human history.
The great tyrants of history have done their best to cause the people they ruled to reject science, simply to ensure the masses are ignorant, terrified, superstitious, and thus easily controlled.
The current political administration is particularly engrossed in the rejection of science. I wonder why.
Are you saying that the ascendency of a criminal sociopath made Western Civilization great?
Not sure how credible that is to people with the IQ of an artichoke.
What Eric Hoffer, 20th Century American philosopher and social critic said here is interesting. But is it true? Does it have any relevance to our world today?
At this point, it doesn’t seem that the meek shall inherit the Earth. And it seems just as unlikely that the learners will have any better luck.
It looks like the world, dominated by the fairly greedy, will soon be dominated by the supremely greedy, those who really don’t care one iota about anyone but themselves–billionaires aspiring to become worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
This runs counter to the norms of all societies that came before us. Never in our past have we had a civilization dominated by people who didn’t care about their children’s future. Not even the most brutal kings and ruthless pharaohs of the past condemned future generations to dust.
You could live next door to this guy.
It’s good to see that overt stupidity like this is on the decline. Sure, 30% of American voters think this way, but very few are willing to display that ignorance in public.
In the semi-rural part of California that 2GreenEnergy “headquarters” makes it home, we’ve seen a huge reduction in Trump hats, banners, and so forth, especially since his second term began. Now, this could be due to the natural beauty of the region that is pulling well-educated and affluent young people up from Los Angeles or elsewhere. It could also have something to do with COVID, where people working from home wanted to get out of the city and into a prettier and more relaxed setting.
But one has to think that MAGA means something more degraded with each passing day, as Trump commits a new atrocity or says something that betrays his lack of respect for the Constitution, his disgusting moral character, and his mental deterioration.
If it’s true that David Valadao is moving back in line with Trump (which seems exceptionally unlikely in California), this jackass is in the slim minority. Most congressional Republicans are trying to pretend they’ve never heard of Trump.
The representative’s district is in the rural farming region in Central California, but still, aligning oneself with Trump makes no more sense than cozying up to skin cancer.
73%? Why not 95%? 125%?
Ayn Rand was a “thing” in the mid-20th Century. Libertarians point out, correctly, that governments tend to be bloated and corrupt. And still today, many people advocate for small government.
What most of us have realized in the last 70 years, however, is that unbridled capitalism results in the centralization of power into the hands of a few billionaires who essentially own our lawmaking apparatus. It leaves the rest to struggle with poverty, inflation, war, racism, sexism, pollution, climate change, poor education, and limited/no access to healthcare.
With a few exceptions, the super-rich really don’t care about the wellbeing of anyone but themselves, and this is resulting in the implosion of our civilization and the slow destruction of our planet.
In a better world, the International Criminal Court would have much greater power to prosecute war crimes.
Today, winding up at The Hague requires terrible luck, and it’s virtually impossible to happen to a Donald Trump or a Pete Hegseth, given the enormous military might that the United States possesses.
Contrast this to what happened to Slobodan Milošević, who was arrested when his countries, Yugoslavia and Serbia, were overthrown.
The prediction made here is nearly certain to come true.
The question is what happens at that point. E.g., how long does it take to rebuild trade deals and relationships with allies?
Keep in mind that regardless of the manner in which Trump loses power, there will always be “news” outlets like Fox and Newsmax, trying their best to convince the idiots that Trump was hounded and persecuted by the communists who hate America.
All I can say about the meme here is that personally I refused, against considerable pressure from my family, to indoctrinate my children into something I myself could not accept.
Is it actually “psychological abuse” to indoctrinate children into monotheistic religion? Whether to take it that far is an open question.
My parents, both atheists, sent my brother and me to Sunday School, as they thought it was wrong to cut us off from this key modality of growing up in America in the early 1960s. I don’t blame them, but again, it’s not something I was willing to replicate with my own children.
