"... the dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enourmously influential media, the 30-second sound bite (now down to 10-seconds or less) the 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, 1996

(note: a quote too long to fit in even the extended format tweet)

So true. That was such an important book for me.

Dumbing down us masses is their way of keeping the populace under control, and slaves to the system.

The masses are asses.

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The masses are asses.

But they didn't start out that way; rather, they were trained that way.

"But they didn't start out that way; rather, they were trained that way."

==It goes from parent to child. The parent trains his child to pray, to go to church, to give money to the church. So you end up with big budget churches like the catholic church, jehova witnesses, mormon church, Joel Osteen, Jim Bakker, Peter Popoff, Jimmy Swaggert, Creflo Dollar, Robert Tilton, Jim Jones (Jonestown), and more.


$100 billion?
Here is a sample of text:

Tuesday, Feb 11, 2020
https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/02/11/mormon-church-fears-drop-in-donations-if-members-know-of-100-billion-stash/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Imagine+No+Religion&utm_content=44


"We already know of allegations that the Mormon Church has a $100 billion investment fund lying around — for charity, theoretically, though virtually none of it has gone there. The public revelation of that fund has Church leaders fearing that followers may reduce their donations."

When a member of the NYT Editorial Board and a former lead News anchor get together to do math [short video]:

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1235900720584540161?s=20

And as usual, Glenn Greenwald gets the larger context:

“Imagine how many people’s hands, and brains, this had to pass through in order for it to make [it] onto the air and then receive the endorsement of the two people on air.”


Part of the dumbing down, whether the dumbed down wish to admit it or not, is the proclivity for Boomers to steadfastly believe the NYT/WaPo/MSNBC etc are reliable sources for the news.

(The first move here, of course, is to insist that this is only anecdotal, an aberration.)

So why don't you tell us of a reliable news source then.

“Imagine how many people’s hands, and brains, this had to pass through in order for it to make [it] onto the air and then receive the endorsement of the two people on air.”

COMMENT: Whether anecdotal or not, this is an outrageous and rather frightening glimpse into the news media. Having said that, it begs the question as to just what happened here and why. We can note that this particular example is so extreme it borders on the comical; and certainly to that extent it is an aberration in its lack of subtlety. We might legitimately ask: Is this just stupidity in the raw, or bad faith? I suppose one lesson is that you do not have to have a mindset of bad faith to misrepresent facts; or to mislead the public. How many more examples occur where the real truth is hidden in obscure or suppressed facts, rather than revealed in stark mathematics? No doubt this is your main point.

_____________________________________________


Part of the dumbing down, whether the dumbed down wish to admit it or not, is the proclivity for Boomers to steadfastly believe the NYT/WaPo/MSNBC etc are reliable sources for the news.

COMMENT: Well, let's not make the mistake that this is a problem that you can selectively apply to the particular news media that you just happen to disagree with. I find it astonishing that you leave out Fox News, whose misrepresentations are blatant, and *do* reveal intentional bad faith. Moreover, where do you suggest that the Boomers (or anyone else) turn for reliable news? Al Jazeera? Or should we just Google Glenn Greenwald?
______________________________________________

(The first move here, of course, is to insist that this is only anecdotal, an aberration.)

COMMENT: Well, it *is* and aberration in its blatancy. And to make the inference that one such anecdotal aberration, however egregious, can or should be used to paint a broad brush of unreliability or bad faith condemnation, is itself a fallacy. To do that, as you obviously are doing here, is to use one example as a political weapon to serve your own agenda. Is that somehow better than an honest, however stupid, mistake?

It's all "bad faith", Henry. And the examples are endless.

In this particular case, I do think it is an example of mind boggling stupidity, however, on the part of too many to even believe.

And Fox News goes under the "etc" (I don't watch it; but I gotta admit, from what I've seen in clips, Tucker has been eating the self-styled left's breakfast, lunch and dinner all day every day for a while now. He even put on Roger Waters to talk Assange for Heaven's sake. That should be very embarrassing to MSNBC loyalists).


I'm not here to tell you what sources to trust, which wouldn't amount to much until the problem with the MSM is recognized and admitted, anyway. But understanding the bit that comes just before BofJ's quote might help:

“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 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..."

Skip the red meat bullshit about crystals, horoscopes, superstition and darkness and concentrate on "when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues..." Sagan misses even here. Virtually NO ONE *is* actually representing "the public interest", least of all the MSM. And those that do, someone like Chris Hedges, who does happen to grasp the issues very well, are never or rarely seen anywhere on the MSM.

Henry, do you actually believe the MSM exists to tell you the truth? To advocate for the public interest? To aid the citizenry in knowledgeably questioning those in authority?

Tell us more about this "self-styled left".