The answer to Dr. Goodall seems to be that intelligence is only one of the characteristics that makes humankind unique on this planet. Into the soup, we need to add extra ingredients: especially greed and cruelty.
From there, we can sprinkle on a bit of cognitive bias. We like to think we’re completely rational agents, but that’s far from the truth.
To the reader who sent me these memes here:
Are you trying to tell me there is a single person stupid enough to believe we’re cutting down trees to make room for solar and wind?
In the note at left Robert Reich reminds us that Trump’s supporters must be under great emotional stress to take this man seriously. Every day brings us new adventures in complete insanity.
As we all learned in Psych 101, cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable phenomenon that occurs when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time. Unless you have the intelligence of a jellyfish, you cannot simultaneously believe a) that Donald Trump is an honorable man who is making America great again, and b) that he is actively obstructing justice by pardoning his supporters for the crimes of which they have been convicted.
A lady asked me to define existentialism the other day, and the words at left are essentially what I told her.
Some people find this concept depressing, i.e., that we live in a universe that is coldly indifferent to our happiness.
I see it differently. We are free to create ourselves in any way we choose.
The reader who sent me this asked if found what Macgregor wrote here to be offensive.
Let me preface my response: I clearly remember Douglas Macgregor from my K-12 education at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, even though he was several years my senior. Even as a boy, I was impressed with his intellect and eloquence, though I was surprised that he was so outspoken about his ultra-conservative beliefs, and had such a great enthusiasm for war, especially considering that “PC” is a Quaker school, built around a religious philosophy centered on pacifism.
As anyone could have predicted, Macgregor went on to a stratospheric career in the U.S. military, and is a former government official, author, consultant, and political commentator.
To answer the question, I do indeed find what he wrote here to be offensive, though perhaps stupid is a better descriptor. The idea that people of my age have minds that can’t be accessed with the truth is preposterous, and yes, deeply insulting.
What he means by all of this, of course, is that most boomers, who experienced the cultural reformation of the 1960s and who, in general, enjoyed better educations than young Americans today, tend to have liberal values that he finds, and has always found, abhorrent.
The resident of a tornado-devastated town in rural Mississippi in this video seems perplexed: If president Trump promised to help Americans first, how is it possible that, two months after the disaster, there hasn’t been a single FEMA person on the scene?
The poor sap just can’t imagine that he’s been conned.
From “Occupy Democrats”: Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (pictured) crushes MAGA Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for whining about the Biden administration instead of planning for the future: “We have zip! Nada!”
If one were to rank each of the American presidents from first to last in terms of respect for our troops, I suppose that Washington, Lincoln, or Eisenhower would be at the top. Trump would most certainly be last, and that would have been true even before the latest debacle in Los Angeles.
There are categories, however, where Trump scores very well, e.g., lawlessness and cruelty.
Progressives tend to be sympathetic people. By definition, we feel others’ pain and we do what we can to alleviate it.
Having said that, I don’t think I know a single soul who feels sorry for the guy here.
Most Americans want a government that performs useful services, and as shown at left, they’re not too happy with what they’re seeing at this point.
