A very good read from this month's The Atlantic. A long read, but a good read for those who still have a mind and were wondering what the hell is going on

How America Lost Its Mind


When did America become untethered from reality?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... nd/534231/

Surely America has been filled with demented idiots since the turn of the last century, when public schools suddenly dumbed down the syllabus. The right wing morons are the antagonists in HSTs books from the late 60s early 70s. McCarthyism claimed there was red under the bed in the 50s, and that was lunacy. Hoover was a cross-dressing fruit. Hell, we're going back to the 30s, even. Americans have been taking pride in being dumb ever since they stopped being socialists. Trotsky was a Wall Street funded socialist revolutionary.

education has been turned into propaganda.
morons are easily controlled..
it is no accident or lack of mental capacity.
pure indoctrination via politics and religion.
divide and rule.
ordo ab chao

The short answer is because we’re Americans—because being American means we can believe anything we want; that our beliefs are equal or superior to anyone else’s, experts be damned.

Oh, for fucks sake. That's so fucking profound. What's with this WE bullshit? The kind of fucktard tripe that passes for journalism astounds me.

I first noticed our national lurch toward fantasy in 2004

Stopped reading there and thought how blind can one be? but then gave it another shot. Got as far as

I’m no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They’re elitist.

and gave up.

Anchor Moy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:59 am A very good read from this month's The Atlantic. A long read, but a good read for those who still have a mind and were wondering what the hell is going on

Pretty good article, couple of extracts:

How many Americans now inhabit alternate realities? Any given survey of beliefs is only a sketch of what people in general really think. But reams of survey research from the past 20 years reveal a rough, useful census of American credulity and delusion. By my reckoning, the solidly reality-based are a minority, maybe a third of us but almost certainly fewer than half. Only a third of us, for instance, don’t believe that the tale of creation in Genesis is the word of God. Only a third strongly disbelieve in telepathy and ghosts. Two-thirds of Americans believe that “angels and demons are active in the world.” More than half say they’re absolutely certain heaven exists, and just as many are sure of the existence of a personal God—not a vague force or universal spirit or higher power, but some guy. A third of us believe not only that global warming is no big deal but that it’s a hoax perpetrated by scientists, the government, and journalists. A third believe that our earliest ancestors were humans just like us; that the government has, in league with the pharmaceutical industry, hidden evidence of natural cancer cures; that extraterrestrials have visited or are visiting Earth. Almost a quarter believe that vaccines cause autism, and that Donald Trump won the popular vote in 2016.

Why did Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan begin remarking frequently during the ’80s and ’90s that people were entitled to their own opinions but not to their own facts? Because until then, that had not been necessary to say. Our marketplace of ideas became exponentially bigger and freer than ever, it’s true. Thomas Jefferson said that he’d “rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it”—because in the new United States, “reason is left free to combat” every sort of “error of opinion.” However, I think if he and our other Enlightenment forefathers returned, they would see the present state of affairs as too much of a good thing. Reason remains free to combat unreason, but the internet entitles and equips all the proponents of unreason and error to a previously unimaginable degree. Particularly for a people with our history and propensities, the downside of the internet seems at least as profound as the upside.

Kuroneko wrote: ↑Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:58 pm By my reckoning, the solidly reality-based are a minority, maybe a third of us but almost certainly fewer than half. Only a third of us, for instance, don’t believe that the tale of creation in Genesis is the word of God. Only a third strongly disbelieve in telepathy and ghosts. Two-thirds of Americans believe that “angels and demons are active in the world.” More than half say they’re absolutely certain heaven exists, and just as many are sure of the existence of a personal God—not a vague force or universal spirit or higher power, but some guy.

Congratulations for pompously putting yourself in the "good third" of people and denigrating all the others who hold religious beliefs. Are you morally and intellectually superior to all people who hold religious beliefs (all Muslims, all Hindus, all Buddhists, all native peoples, etc.) or just all Americans who hold religious views? That must surely put you in the elite 5% of the world, not just the elite 33%. Something more for you to brag about. It must be good to be you, being so intellectually superior while seemingly having little else to do but post cat memes on various internet forums.

xxxxxxx wrote:

Kuroneko wrote: ↑Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:58 pm By my reckoning, the solidly reality-based are a minority, maybe a third of us but almost certainly fewer than half. Only a third of us, for instance, don’t believe that the tale of creation in Genesis is the word of God. Only a third strongly disbelieve in telepathy and ghosts. Two-thirds of Americans believe that “angels and demons are active in the world.” More than half say they’re absolutely certain heaven exists, and just as many are sure of the existence of a personal God—not a vague force or universal spirit or higher power, but some guy.

Congratulations for pompously putting yourself in the "good third" of people and denigrating all the others who hold religious beliefs. Are you morally and intellectually superior to all people who hold religious beliefs (all Muslims, all Hindus, all Buddhists, all native peoples, etc.) or just all Americans who hold religious views? That must surely put you in the elite 5% of the world, not just the elite 33%. Something more for you to brag about. It must be good to be you, being so intellectually superior while seemingly having little else to do but post cat memes on various internet forums.

It's always good to read the OP before you post.Then you would notice when posters are quoting the article that is being discussed,eg.

Pretty good article, couple of extracts:

and you might also notice what the article is about. In this case, it is an essay from The Atlantic discussing a theory on why so many in the USA are prone to believing in things that the rest of the world dismiss as fantasy, and how that is affecting their relation with reality.