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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
Tennessee’s Cosmetology Board Thinks It Can Regulate a Software Company
Or, could it be that the board is using its regulatory power at the behest of private businesses who don’t want to compete with Project Belle? That seems to be case.
Also tagged government, politics, tennessee
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How Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh, and Other Blowhard Goliaths Meet Their David
Donald Trump’s ongoing feud with the parents of a slain soldier, like Rush Limbaugh’s personal attacks on a student before it, shows the modern bloviator’s greatest weakness: his inability to walk away.
Also tagged politics
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Fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections
I find this particularly compelling, and it dispenses with dissenting arguments in toto: Of course, the Constitution contemplates that democracy is the appropriate process for change, so long as that process does not abridge fundamental rights. Last Term, a plurality of this Court reaffirmed the importance of the democratic principle in Schuette v. BAMN, 572 […]
Supreme Court extends same-sex marriage nationwide
Associated Press on Twitter: MORE: The Supreme Court’s ruling means 14 states will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage Tennessee being one of those 14 states. Not to pat myself on the back, but I’ve been calling this one for a decade on Equal Protection grounds, even before that awful ‘Tennessee Marriage […]
Federal Court Rules Mass Metadata Collection Not Authorized by PATRIOT Act
The government takes the position that the metadata collected – a vast amount of which does not contain directly “relevant” information, as the government concedes – are nevertheless “relevant” because they may allow the NSA, at some unknown time in the future, utilizing its ability to sift through the trove of irrelevant data it has […]
Also tagged government, politics
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Pediatrician: Vaccinate Your Kids—Or Get Out of My Office
Russell Saunders, a pediatrician in New England, writing at The Daily Beast: Declining vaccines is, at best, misguided. But of course those inclined to refuse them don’t agree with me, and I’m not going to try to change their minds. I’ve had too many of that kind of conversation over the years to hold out […]
Penn on Daylight Savings Time
I couldn’t agree more with Penn’s conclusion: Now, I meet people, you know this, I have met people–Matt Donnelly–who believe in Chiropractors. I have met people who believe in circumcision. I have met people, I have met them personally, who are anti-vaccination. I have met people that believe in a supreme being–omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent–who cares […]
Also tagged bullshit, penn, pennssundayschool
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AP: Gay Marriage Ruling Already in Use in Other Cases
Interracial marriage still was illegal in 16 states in 1967 before the high court outlawed race-based state marriage bans. It is rather amazing — and shocking — to read accounts from the 50s and 60s regarding interracial marriage. What’s most shocking is the realization that the arguments used, and used effectively – for decades, by […]
Also tagged family, government, opinion, politics
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WSJ: NSA Monitoring Includes Three Major Phone Companies, as Well as Online Activity
Honestly, I don’t know why so many people are getting so upset about this. Let me rephrase that: I honestly don’t know why so many people are just now getting so upset about this! Unless you’ve been practicing willful ignorance — for political or other reasons — then you’ve known full well about (or at […]
Also tagged bullshit, government, opinion, politics, skepticism
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Penn & Teller get star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Penn Jillette on Twitter (@pennjillette): Maybe the favorite picture I’ve ever seen. Wow. Makes me cry!
Also tagged entertainment, freethought
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