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Friday, June 29, 2012
Sorry, no critical thinking allowed in the GOP
I blogged about the Texas Republican Party platform the other day, but I just had to post this. I like how Cenk Uygur gets worked up - as he should! This is just unbelievable, isn't it?
I could be wrong, but I thought it was the purpose of education to take ignorant children and teach them, not to just confirm their existing beliefs. After all, if children are supposed to maintain the "fixed beliefs" they've already got, why send them to school at all?
Yeah, I know - I shouldn't give the GOP any ideas, huh? But how stupid do you have to be to oppose critical thinking skills?
Does a kid believe the Earth is flat? Well, we wouldn't want to challenge his fixed beliefs, then, would we? Has he been taught that the stork brings babies? OMG, we certainly can't teach him about S-E-X! That would challenge his "fixed beliefs."
The rest of the platform is dumb enough, but this really takes the cake! I agree with Cenk 100% when he says that the Republican Party is a national embarrassment. How can Americans still be dumb enough to vote Republican? It just blows my mind!
I'm just as angry as Cenk about this - about the crazies in the GOP and the ineffectual, timid response this will inevitably get from Democrats. Christ, what kind of country have we become? I just don't get it. What has happened to us?
Well, that's Texas for you. "We down't knead know book lernin."
ReplyDeleteWCG, I don't know about you, but I'm running out of witty (allegedly)and insightful (allegedly) comments for you. The tsunami of stupid from the Right is a little too much at this time. I feel like the "meathead" from "All In The Family." After listening to about 5 minutes of Archie Bunker's tortured logic, all Mike could do is stand there and scream.
You're right about the Democrats. They to finally "grow a pair" and quit playing the GOP's stooge.
And I keep feeling like I'm beating a dead horse, pointing out the craziness that just keeps coming.
DeleteI don't know, Jeff. Standing and screaming doesn't accomplish much. Then again, I guess that's all I'm doing here, isn't it?
From my distant perspective over the Pond, the Republicans seem to be running scared. They are scared of the way the world is changing, scared that the USA is becoming increasingly diverse in its ethnicity, culture and religious beliefs. They hanker for a largely mythical golden era in the past (maybe based on the 1950s?) and are frantically trying to turn the clock back as far as they can. It's sad to see - and worrying to those of us who want to see a strong, capable America facing up to the growing problems in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe upside is that this attitude can't last forever. It is inherently untenable, and reminds me of another myth - that of Canute telling the tide to stop coming in.
You're right, Tony, but they can do a lot of damage in the meantime. In fact, that's exactly what they're trying to do.
DeleteOh, they don't see it as damage, I'm sure. But this is their big push to change America enough that it will last for generations (in part, by packing the Supreme Court with young far-right justices who'll have a lifetime to push their agenda).
We've missed enough chances already, just in my lifetime. The Arab Oil Embargo in the 1970s, for example, was a wake-up call we've ignored for 40 years. At some point, we'll just delay too long.
And if billionaires and corporations succeed in buying this election, under the new money = speech rules the Supreme Court has recently given us, that will give them the kind of power which will be immensely hard to combat.
Democrats aren't known for their willingness to fight. They'll capitulate immediately, if that seems to be the way the wind is blowing. We saw that during the Bush administration.
So,... running scared? I'm scared enough myself! The tide may eventually come in, but it might not do us much good by then.
I came across something else in New Scientist magazine this week: predictions by scientists show that the sea level on both sides of North America will be rising over the next century, due partly to tectonic changes and partly to rising temperatures.
ReplyDeleteThe response to this of North Carolina legislators? To debate a bill forbidding coastal managers from predicting that sea level rises will accelerate! Fortunately, the bill was eventually rejected.
The mind boggles....do they seriously think they can make a problem go away by refusing to hear about it?
It's faith-based thinking, Tony. They just know they're right, and the end justifies the means, right? :)
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