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- Yeah, in a Minute... is the personal dumping grounds of Paul Landry:
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News Gathering vs. Confirmation Bias
- Remember, if you do not have at least one source of news that you turn to regularly, with which you routinely disagree, then you are not practicing news gathering! You are practicing [confirmation bias].
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Science
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) at p.32.
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
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Tag Archives: rational thought / critical thinking
Don’t Talk on Cell Phone While Driving, Just Don’t Do It
Remember folks, talking hands-free on a cell phone while driving is JUST AS DANGEROUS as talking in a cell phone you’re holding while driving. Hands-free is NO SAFER!!! The MythBusters proved it.
Also tagged entertainment, science, smartphone, tv
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The Best Way to Spot an Idiot: Kindness as a Signifier of Intelligence
Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker’s commencement speech at Northwestern on 12 June 2023 (excerpted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball): The best way to spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel. When we see someone who doesn’t look like us, or sound like us, or act like us, or love like us, or […]
The Q-Dropped Podcast: Stories of Families Ripped Apart by Qanon
I’ve only recently discovered this podcast, and it is excellent! Hosted by the Godless Mom Courtney Heard (Follow her on Mastodon), the show is touching, and at times poignant. The Q-Dropped podcast is a show dedicated to telling the stories of families that have been torn apart by the Qanon cult and Qanon-adjacent ideas. Most […]
Also tagged commentary, entertainment, politics, reason, religion
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People who skipped their COVID vaccine are at higher risk of traffic accidents
Erin Prater reporting for Fortune: If you passed on getting the COVID vaccine, you might be a lot more likely to get into a car crash. Seems logical. Irrational thinkers are bound to be worse drivers. They found that the unvaccinated people were 72% more likely to be involved in a severe traffic crash—in which […]
Election Deniers Were Among the Biggest Losers of the 2022 Midterms
Halle–fucking–lujah. Charlotte Alter, reporting for Time: The stakes could not have been higher. Across the country, Republican candidates who falsely say Donald Trump won the 2020 race ran for offices this year that would have put them in position to oversee elections in 2024. If an election-denier won an election-oversight job in a battleground state, […]
Also tagged government, politics, reason
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God Damn It !!!
Jumpin’ Jesus! It’s International Blasphemy Day!
Also tagged constitution, education, freedom, freethought, law/legal, religion
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Reason Roundup: Kansans Reject Anti-Abortion Ballot Measure—and It’s Not Even Close
Elizabeth Nolan Brown reporting for Reason.com: Voters overwhelmingly voted against a measure that would have allowed abortion to be banned in Kansas in the first post-Roe test of abortion’s legality put directly to the people. Yeah, that’s the kind of crazy thing about the Dobbs decision — the people of our fair nation are overwhelmingly […]
Also tagged commentary, education, family, freedom, government, health, law/legal, politics, reason
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Those today who believe whatever nonsense they see on Facebook
John Gruber at Daring Fireball, nailing it as usual: Those today who believe whatever nonsense they see on Facebook are like the people who, a generation ago, believed the nonsense printed in supermarket tabloids like “The Weekly World News”. The difference is that instead of being crackpots who write letters to elected officials, a bunch […]
Also tagged commentary, skepticism
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New study indicates populist attitudes are associated with gullibility.
Populism exists throughout the political spectrum as a political ideology that defines society as conflict between ordinary people and the elites. Many conspiracy theories fit populist ideals in how they hinge on the elites as responsible for ordinary people’s societal issues. New research, published in Political Psychology, found that populist attitudes are associated with conspiracy […]
Also tagged science
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It’s Time to Ban “Right Turn on Red”
The dangerous maneuver is allowed thanks to a flawed idea about emissions from the 1970s. We don’t need it. Abigail Weinberg reporting at Mother Jones: It’s an obsolete relic of the 1970s oil crisis. It’s dangerous to pedestrians. And, if you drive a car in the United States, you likely do it every day. It’s […]
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