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Having lived in the deep south most of my life I think I understand what's going on here. It's not that they're afraid of things they don't understand. It's th
by sixothree 11y ago
Having lived in the deep south most of my life I think I understand what's going on here.
It's not that they're afraid of things they don't understand. It's that there is a certain type of person they generally don't like. In this case it might have been a man that had some sort of intellectual curiosity, maybe a bit eccentric. And they will use their ignorance as a weapon against those people.
The police department knows full well they can determine whether this was a bomb or not. It's within their ability to interview every person he interacted with to find if he claimed it was a bomb at any point. Instead of doing that they will use their lack of knowledge to allow falsehoods to move the investigation.
It was within the ability of the staff to determine the monetary cost of this man's actions. In the very least they could compare the electricity bill during a month he was running SETI versus the next month when he was not. They could calculate the power consumption of the machines.
It's not that they are afraid of knowing. But that knowing or admitting the truthfulness of the facts makes them less powerful as people.
- lisper 11y agoI think it's both: ignorance is the source of their power, and they are afraid of losing it. (I also grew up in the South.)
- Florin_Andrei 11y ago> ignorance is the source of their power Ignorance is a source of power only within a like-minded group, and only as long as that group is powerful. Now get out of there and see where ignorance gets you. Or wait until that group washes out into the irrelevance of history.
- lisper 11y agoIt's actually not the ignorance per se, it's the self-confidence that comes from a mindset that allows you to believe things without evidence, or even in the face of contrary evidence. That sort of self-confidence can be very powerful (c.f. Donald Trump) but, of course, it can also be very dangerous.
- anigbrowl 11y agoIf you're stuck within such a group, you can wait your whole life for history to prove you right and still be disappointed - better to start planning your exit strategy.
- braythwayt 11y ago"The market can remain irrational far longer than you can remain solvent."
- anigbrowl 11y agoPrecisely - I actually started out with the same quote but trying to articulate a notion of epistemological solvency became unwieldy :-)
- jessedhillon 11y ago> Or wait until that group washes out into the irrelevance of history. That's all fine and good on a geological scale, but we've been waiting 200+ years for the irrelevance of this particular group, and there's not a hope in sight of it happening any time soon.
- PhasmaFelis 11y agoSaying "don't worry, this group that currently holds power over large parts of the country only holds power currently, and only over large parts of the country" is not as reassuring as you probably meant it to be.
- xbryanx 11y agoIrving, Texas is not typical of what most consider the deep south. It's part of the DFW metroplex which is in the nation's fourth largest population center[1], and it's in a county that went 57% for Obama in the 2012 election[2]. So let's just be careful about painting wide swaths of the country with an singular view. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metropolitan_Statistic... [2] - http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president
- 01Michael10 11y agoI guess you are not familiar with Irving's Mayor, Beth Van Duyne... Sorry to blow your theory right out of the water.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- TallGuyShort 11y agoAre you saying the Mayor defines this area more than the numerous other demographics that show it is not simply a backwoods hillbilly town?
- 01Michael10 11y agoYes... I believe the Mayor of Irving is an elected position by the people. It's a better indicator then being the 4th biggest metropolitan in the country like that matters.
- TallGuyShort 11y agoAnd going 57% for Obama also says something about the people. We're not saying they're bleeding-heart-liberals. We're saying it's a little more complicated than, "Oh well it's the deep South..." Too many people are dismissing this like it's just the norm. It shouldn't be. More people should be asking if Islamophobia is a bigger part of mainstream America than we're willing to admit.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- andrepd 11y agoThat, or they just didn't like that someone illegally installed money-wasting software on school property without so much as an approval request. PS: Money wasting from their point of view, not making any judgement about SETI here
- sixothree 11y agoRight. I really should have separated the two incidents from my single point.