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Its shocking to see the decline and fall of the American intellect. Will this lead to the ultimate demise of the American dynasty. A harkening back to a new version of the Dark Ages in America where conspiracy theories, religious superstition, reign over facts and knowledge.

t1nick 8 Sep 6
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2

This propaganda model is still in play.

Sounds a lot like trump and his proaganda machine alright

@t1nick - to be fair, I think the Dems are relying a lot on emotional messaging at the expense of specific arguments too. Politics seems more like the smack talk of sports fans these days.

16

This is not accidental. The Republican party, at all levels. has sought to de-fund, cripple, and damage public education. Their intent has been to create a population incapable of informed, independent critical thinking.That strategy has been in effect for the last 30 years.

Lol you got that right there......just look at the Bible Belt

9

Don't be a pessimist. Vote Republicans out of office!

9

What we're going through sucks but I'm not about ready to give up yet this is my country too. 😤

8

The American dynasty became a lot like duck dynasty.
Misinformation from the right has always been a problem, but Sarah Palin was ground zero for the current gathering of idiocracy.
Trump saw it and pounced on it and turned it up to ten.
With QAnon and an openly racist president, it has gotten so far out of hand I don't think we'll ever recover.
Even if Biden wins he's to moderate to bring us back.
To quote C3PO..."We're doomed"

Biden has spent more time courting the people who brought us Sarah Palin than he has progressive democrats. Specifically, Steve Schmidt (co-founder of the Lincoln project and "discoverer" of Palin) and Nicole Wallace. I hope you are wrong and we are not doomed, but I still have hope that we are not.

@altschmerz

Actually it began in 1983 with Reagan's second run for office. It officially became a part of the Republican platform that year. I'm not being sarcastic or flippant, it did start then.

8

When nature gets wind of what American society has stooped to, evolution will be forced to work weekends.

7

We are already the most backward First world country there is. People just don't get the whole American religiousness and with good reason.

7

I'd say we're about one Supreme Court Justice away from exactly that.

7

I'm not so sure American intellect was ever in such abundant supply. I think we have a tendency to romanticize the past. That's not to say that some things aren't worse today, however, but I don't think it's because the average person is dumber now; we just have more opportunity to spread conspiratorial nonsense and superstition and fear/hate than we've ever had before. Human nature has always lent itself to such failings, but never before have we had the tools to organize our darker impulses than with the advent of the internet and, especially, of social media. And it's that unification of irrationality that has eroded the trust in, and respect for, expertise and facts, allowing hate-mongering and buffoonery to be elected to high office by an unwavering, substantial minority who don't believe their candidate is capable of wrongdoing and, when faced with irrefutable evidence, ultimately don't care. The willfully ignorant and the morally bankrupt have always existed, but they've never felt so emboldened as they do now and they've never before had the organized agency to make their knee-jerk reactions public policy. Unfortunately, it's not just a matter of the disenfranchised taking up this mantle, because I think that would eventually run out of steam, but we also have a deep schism between the far right and the far left that continues to fuel the conflict, and this polarization leaves an ever-shrinking middle ground for civility and effective governance to take place. We can see similar division taking place all around the world, but the United States seems to be leading that charge.

I don't think the far left is extreme as the far right at this point in time. In fact I think of the establishment democrats as pretty conservative and the progressive faction to be "main stream". In any case, I still think that there is a chance that when the middle of the road candidate (Biden) is elected and some of our institutions are restored, the loud minority will start to crawl back under the rocks from which they came. I think that when challenged these people are cowards. That's what I think, anyway

@MyTVC15 No, I don't think the far left is as bad as the far right, but still not good. The extremes tend to be harmful, but in different ways. Regardless, I do agree with you about establishment Democrats being rather conservative (or, more to the point, corporatists who favor the status quo). I do hope you're right that a moderate Democrat in the White House will drive the worst of the right — the racist, sexist, xenophobic ones who have been most vocal — back underground. I'm not holding my breath, however, and I'm not at all confident that Biden will win the swing states he needs to overtake Trump. I'm preparing for another four years of this nightmare.

@resserts four more years in unsustainable.

@MyTVC15 Agreed. I just hope the 50% of citizens who never vote see it the same way we do.

7

"Idiocracy"

6

Oh I think we have always been stupid. It's just now that we have the Internet and cell phone video that you can SEE tbe stupid. It's just like police brutality; this shit has been going on FOREVER, it's just that now we have videos of it.

6

I’m afraid you are correct. Ever since Reagan I’ve seen an accelerating decline. The beast (government) is being starved to death. End of empire. 😢

Im glad I'm not the only one that traces it back to Raegan. It began with the Republican re-election campaign of 1983.

Reagan and his f**** ''moral majority" crap. Not to mention the 'war on drugs'!

@freeofgod

Reagan and the Republican Party officially embraced and vociferously campaigned against intellectualism in their platform. They openly campaigned that Demoncrats were so elite and overly educated to be in touch with the common American, insinuating that intelligence was a bad thing. They built on that platform each year until you see where it has gotten us. ......trump. Nunez, P. Navarro.& Jordan, just for examples.

6

Most of the "great" civilizations on this rock have risen and fallen.
Granted, most of them managed to survive for several thousand years, but NOOOOO,
not us.
We couldn't even make it one thousand years.

As I said in another thread recently, I hate us, we suck.
Humans are the only species who are the architects of their own demise.
Given what we've done to this country, and the planet, we've got it coming.

@creative51 The Ancient Egyptian empire lasted about 3,000 years.

My point remains.

5

Look at where our governing principles came from, in part... The old Roman Republic. Look what happened to them. The easiest way to say it is that stupid people are reproducing faster than smarter people. Watch the stupid, cornball movie Idiocracy... It is happening.

You have a solid 35%-40% of the American population who thinks Trump is their savior. They buy into lies, distortions and distractions so easily. When the stupid people reproduce at rate where these percentages move to 50%-55%... America, as we know it, will fall. We are already on our way.

Your totally right. Many of those who bought into the lies were hurting, unemployed, and were desperate. Given these circumstances, you’ll tend to see anything that sounds good can be true. Being in New York, I’ve known about Trump nearly my whole life and many of his past deeds. Nobody here can stand him. My gut instinct tells me the real reason he left here is not because of taxes like he claims, but because he’s vulnerable to assassination. There are tens of thousands of people in the area of Trump Tower at 5 Ave. and E.57 St. at any given time of day as well as the high rise skyscrapers nearby. This will make it fairly easy to pick him off even if he has the Secret Service and Bodyguards nearby and the shooters could be gone in a very short time.

5

I get the impression that it's happening in the UK as well. For example. In the late eighties one of our summer job employees was telling us how much she enjoyed 'analytical history' at school. This was a comparatively new subject at the time and dealt with things like primary and secondary evidence and where to find them. Several months or maybe a year later, a certain John Major at a Conservative Party conference, stated that he would return state education to basic values (the three Rs) and that history classes would return to rote learning of events and dates. It occurs to me that if you teach the general population how to analyze the past, they can also analyze the present and be more able to to spot when they are being fed B.S. And that, of course, would never do!!

5

Humanity is weird. Almost everyday I think to myself, “what weird times we’re living in.” And it’s not just the pandemic, it’s all these crazy people espousing their crazy beliefs. Where lines between political and religious has become so blurred, it’s cultish. I’m highly disappointed in the general masses at the moment. Why is America so anti-intellectual?

One theory from Isaac Asimov [openculture.com]

Being ‘anti-intellectual’ appears the easiest choice.. I’ve come to feel, and notice, that here in the US we’ve the best educated crop of (relative) youth, ever. Two are mine! But, with college debt seemingly forever, home ownership nearly inconceivable, and few jobs requiring ‘that level’ of education, many educations appear to be going to waste..

Regarding the ignorant cultish behavior you’ve/ we’ve noticed … it seems that prior to trump, there were a shitload of suicides from those I suspect are/ were members of that ‘cult.’ With trump, they’ve someone causing enough misery to our best - that these suicidal sickos have decided to hang around … even wave their flag (be it US, confederate, or trump), and cheer on his brand of destruction… I’m hoping it’s their last hurrah 😕

5

I think we're already there. In 2016, there were enough morons to vote Chump into the White House. 🙄 I just hope the election will go better this year. 🤞

BIDEN / HARRIS 2020! 😀

In 2016 it was shocking to see the people who had never voted before pouring out to support a reality, low rent, TV 'star'.

@creative51 If the democrats win the senate and the presidency we just might see an end to the electoral college.....about damn time too

5

We're learning to become a global community.
Mistakes are being made.
The world gets smaller every day.

like it or not for some, we already are a global community

@Redneckliberal Global is fine with me. The part that really, really, gets me is the willful ignorance!

4

The corporatists have already extracted max wealth from the country and moved on. For over 30 years they (the corporations) have extracted over 21 trillion dollars out of the US economy while funding the growth of 3rd world counties for their cheap labor and resources.

The 50 year goal is to destabilize the American economics system to the point that once they've exploited other countries and the populations are now sufficiently educated that they demand equality and equal pay. That only then will corporations consider transplanting manufacturing and production jobs back into the US. However, with the increase in automation using AI and robotics the production jobs won't return.

Meanwhile the ability to advance and or grow the intellect of the nation will only come from the coasts while the whole of middle and southern states of America rots with ignorance and religosity in a endless feedback loop of misery and destitute squalor.

4

I don't think it's only an American thing. It looks more to me like a worldwide thing. Tyrants tend to control and concentrate the information at the top while dumbing down the masses.

Agreed, but I was mostly concerned with the US in this post.

4

I think we’re well on the road there. 😔

4

Well this is rather sad thought. I do hope America and Americans manage to redeem the situation. You decide, I suppose, but so many feel it’s out of their hands and that’s part of a Worldwide problem 🙁

4

I heard the prediction many years ago when I was a freshman in college that the USA was already showing signs of going down like Rome. And now that we have Nero fiddling while Rome burns, I think the end might come sooner rather than later. But I have hope that this was just a horrible spell that we will bounce back from. but maybe I am being too optimistic.

Unfortunately, I think that prediction was right. There is a breakdown everywhere you look. It goes way deeper than the nacho in cheese. It can be seen in communities and homes. Hopefully, just one more person wakes up each day and says to themselves 'Enough!'.

3

We, and our resources would be carved up and redistributed around the world. If Putin’s goal was to shed doubt on democracy ..it’s currently working.

If we were capable of staying the course for longer than a couple years after electing a decent President & Congress, our chance for survival would be much improved..

Varn Level 8 Sep 7, 2020

Trump has been more effective for Putin in destroying America than a nuke, andca hell of a lot cheaper. Unfortunately, reoairing all the damage done by Trump & his ilk, and our decades long gradule drift in to decline will not be fixed quickly. It will take decades to fix our governance.....if we are lucky. It is always easier to break things than to fix them.

I don't think Putin had much to do with it, he doesn't have to you are all doing a very good job there yourselves.

@Jolanta Putin helped elect, then influence our so-called president. He’s at it again… Count yourself lucky you’ve little they want or fear..

@Varn You mean he influenced your president just like the US "influences" politicians and different ideologies around the world.

@Jolanta He no doubt coursed a malignant narcissist, likely some blackmail, proven election 'interference,’ and we won’t know till it’s uncovered just how much damage has been done to a nation you apparently envy… You’re not the expert you think ~

@Varn Oh, are you talking about me "envying" the fact that people don't have health care there, have to work several jobs just to pay the rent, don't have enough of money to feed their children or perhaps you think I "envy" US for their blatant hypocrisy of starting wars in countries that they intend to bring "democracy" to.

@Jolanta I don’t know why you envy my nation, the fact is simply apparent. Get this, though, I’m making my second ‘block’ (that I’m aware of) on this site … you add nothing ~

3

It will . . . . China and Russia do not have even close to the the kind of idiots they make here, the people who control this country do not want people who think critically, people who can think critically are much more difficult to control.

3

Part could be the pervasive influence of religion that's basically anti science , or look at idocracy, morons out breeding intellectuals

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