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News Gathering vs. Confirmation Bias
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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: reason
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, rational thought / critical thinking
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On President-Elect Joe Biden’s Address to the Nation
I have to say that as an actual Conservative1, I disagree with Joe Biden more than I agree with him2. But I also have to acknowlege this: Last night, I watched a President-Elect address the nation. He spoke in coherent, cogent, complete sentences. He spoke of his vision for the nation, and did so without […]
Also tagged government, history, politics, rational thought / critical thinking
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Facemasks are the Most Important, Powerful Public Health Tool
Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifying before Congress on Wednesday: Facemasks — these facemasks — are the most important, powerful public health tool we have. Goddamn right. Now, some people are saying that Dr. Redfield “walked back” his remarks, after being publicly disputed by Comrade Trump, but that’s […]
Also tagged covid-19, rational thought / critical thinking, science
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This is a Moment When Many People May Want Nothing More Than a Return to Normalcy
Tim Cook, in a memo to Apple employees in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on Thursday, 25 May 2020, which understandably sparked demonstrations, some of which turned violent, across the nation: Team, Right now, there is a pain deeply etched in the soul of our nation […]
Also tagged abuse, commentary, equality, government, history, law enforcement, rational thought / critical thinking, society
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U.S. Supreme Court turns away religious bias claim
Yahoo! Finance: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to Walgreens, turning away an appeal by a fired former Florida employee of the pharmacy chain who asked not to work on Saturdays for religious reasons as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The justices declined to review a lower court ruling in […]
Also tagged government, politics, religion
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Trade Wars are Neither Good Nor Easy to Win
PETER SUDERMAN at Reason.com, “Trump Campaigned on Saving Factory Jobs, but U.S. Manufacturing Just Went Through a Year-Long Recession”: Manufacturers have a clear culprit in mind for the sector’s poor performance. As The Washington Post notes in a report on the Federal Reserve data, the uncertainty and increased costs surrounding Trump’s trade war, which was […]
Also tagged economy, government, politics
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Reason: Mutual Hatred Is All Democrats and Republicans Have to Offer
J.D. Tuccille writing at Reason.com: What defines a Republican, these days? How about a Democrat? That’s a difficult question to answer. After years of shifting priorities and ideologies, the beliefs of Republicans of today bear little resemblance to those of somebody of that affiliation from a decade ago, and the modern Democrat is just as […]
Also tagged commentary, politics
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South Park: Band in China…
Also tagged entertainment, politics, rational thought / critical thinking
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Reason: Don’t Destroy the Constitution To Fight Drag Queen Reading Hour
Steven Greenhut writing at Reason.com: The Sacramento public library featured a drag-queen story hour, in which men dressed as women read stories to children. It seems bizarre and agenda-driven, given that a stated goal was to provide kids with “glamorous, positive and unabashedly queer role models.” I’ve seen drag queens and glamorous isn’t the first […]
Also tagged government, opinion, politics, 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 […]
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