Which came first, the chicken or right-wing propagandized media? Answer: right-wing media is the chicken, and the egg is the amorphous terror on which right-wing thinking and media is founded.
Before there could be fake news and right-wing propaganda, there had to be receptive audiences which were susceptible to the kind of fear mongerin…
Which came first, the chicken or right-wing propagandized media? Answer: right-wing media is the chicken, and the egg is the amorphous terror on which right-wing thinking and media is founded.
Before there could be fake news and right-wing propaganda, there had to be receptive audiences which were susceptible to the kind of fear mongering, superstition, misinformation, and stereotyping that they represent. Which brings us to de Tocqueville’s incisive observations. Something has changed and changed radically. Our literate, uber-curious, and highly discriminating and well-informed populace is now largely gullible and ignorant. Indeed, many are willfully ignorant.
How have the literacy, intellectual acumen, appreciation for science, facts, literature, and popular rejection of mythology declined in the US in the last century-and-a-half? After all, did we not institute compulsory school attendance to guarantee education in public schools?
Oh, yes. That was the theory. But Tolstoy was adamantly opposed, along with many rank and file Americans. He had his own academy and he understood education and educational issues as well as anyone. His essays on the topic are eloquent and incredibly enlightening and predictive. He saw the fiasco coming and warned us. No one listened.
It turns out that placing he training, socialization, and education of children in the hands of the state has backfired terribly. I have written extensively on the topic, trying to echo Tolstoy and hoping that the contemporary science will motivate people to listen. However, I have also been dismissed and ignored.
Prohibition failed. The attempt to mass produce education using coercion has failed for some of the same reasons. Education is much more complicated than morality and morality is a core part of education. When a law mandates that children be in attendance, the stage has been turned around 180 degrees and all the characters have profoundly different perceptions and roles. There will be a small minority of select students who will be exceptional or fortunate going in who will be the winners and who will maintain their integrity. The rest will be injured, damaged, compromised, and handicapped in varying degrees.
You could go to the library and extract all the books with the false information and demagoguery that might mislead future patrons to sanitize the material there. But that smacks of book burning. You can at least set minimal standards for media and try to screen out the worst of the worst. But people who want to believe that Democrats drink the blood of children will find a place to satisfy that thirst.
Traditional schools, because of the law, are obsessed with behavior modification and the control of students and obedience to authority. Having a common denominator for content and curricula means that the lowest common denominator will become the standard. Initiative on the part of students all but disappears and attempts to replace it are hollow and superficial. I could go on but no one is listening to me. Compulsory attendance is America's security blanket. Unfortunately, it has never protected us despite the mythology and it is not going to keep anyone warm when the fascists gain control.
Which came first, the chicken or right-wing propagandized media? Answer: right-wing media is the chicken, and the egg is the amorphous terror on which right-wing thinking and media is founded.
Before there could be fake news and right-wing propaganda, there had to be receptive audiences which were susceptible to the kind of fear mongering, superstition, misinformation, and stereotyping that they represent. Which brings us to de Tocqueville’s incisive observations. Something has changed and changed radically. Our literate, uber-curious, and highly discriminating and well-informed populace is now largely gullible and ignorant. Indeed, many are willfully ignorant.
How have the literacy, intellectual acumen, appreciation for science, facts, literature, and popular rejection of mythology declined in the US in the last century-and-a-half? After all, did we not institute compulsory school attendance to guarantee education in public schools?
Oh, yes. That was the theory. But Tolstoy was adamantly opposed, along with many rank and file Americans. He had his own academy and he understood education and educational issues as well as anyone. His essays on the topic are eloquent and incredibly enlightening and predictive. He saw the fiasco coming and warned us. No one listened.
It turns out that placing he training, socialization, and education of children in the hands of the state has backfired terribly. I have written extensively on the topic, trying to echo Tolstoy and hoping that the contemporary science will motivate people to listen. However, I have also been dismissed and ignored.
Prohibition failed. The attempt to mass produce education using coercion has failed for some of the same reasons. Education is much more complicated than morality and morality is a core part of education. When a law mandates that children be in attendance, the stage has been turned around 180 degrees and all the characters have profoundly different perceptions and roles. There will be a small minority of select students who will be exceptional or fortunate going in who will be the winners and who will maintain their integrity. The rest will be injured, damaged, compromised, and handicapped in varying degrees.
You could go to the library and extract all the books with the false information and demagoguery that might mislead future patrons to sanitize the material there. But that smacks of book burning. You can at least set minimal standards for media and try to screen out the worst of the worst. But people who want to believe that Democrats drink the blood of children will find a place to satisfy that thirst.
Traditional schools, because of the law, are obsessed with behavior modification and the control of students and obedience to authority. Having a common denominator for content and curricula means that the lowest common denominator will become the standard. Initiative on the part of students all but disappears and attempts to replace it are hollow and superficial. I could go on but no one is listening to me. Compulsory attendance is America's security blanket. Unfortunately, it has never protected us despite the mythology and it is not going to keep anyone warm when the fascists gain control.