This Venezuela deal is just the latest example: The president has marinated his brain in an insane fantasy that he is an effective leader. It would all be funny if we didn’t have to live through it.
And when you have almost half of America believing that shared delusion…
I think even if we had it, so much privileging of crazy beliefs would continue to leave this kind of thing untreated.
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”
–Asimov
It’s so weird how differently things like athletics vs. expertise of the intellectual kind are treated in this country. You can say things like “elite athlete” unironically and that won’t really provoke resistance against that.
People that think they can out-sportsball an elite athlete are viewed by most as utterly delusional, because they probably are.
But when so many of my fellow Americans see an expert on some scientific topic, they’ll sneer and grumble about “elitists” and how we don’t need experts, we have “common sense”.
They get stuck at the stage after right/wrong thinking, both sides have merit, but don’t continue to grow and use critical analysis to weigh which is better for humanity, or profit, however they judge what is good.
I think even if we had it, so much privileging of crazy beliefs would continue to leave this kind of thing untreated.
–Asimov
It’s so weird how differently things like athletics vs. expertise of the intellectual kind are treated in this country. You can say things like “elite athlete” unironically and that won’t really provoke resistance against that.
People that think they can out-sportsball an elite athlete are viewed by most as utterly delusional, because they probably are.
But when so many of my fellow Americans see an expert on some scientific topic, they’ll sneer and grumble about “elitists” and how we don’t need experts, we have “common sense”.
They get stuck at the stage after right/wrong thinking, both sides have merit, but don’t continue to grow and use critical analysis to weigh which is better for humanity, or profit, however they judge what is good.