2 ms·

> It's not a broader sign about the current state of the whatever. "I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the Unit

> It's not a broader sign about the current state of the whatever. "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... The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance." - Carl Sagan Texas does shit like this all the time, as do other southern states, and the local govt of any person reading this might be next. This is absolutely representative of a pattern of the celebration of ignorance in the US. The only thing left to do is acknowledge it and do something about it.

roughly 4y ago
Even before Carl Sagan's day, you could find some idiot saying idiot things somewhere, if you looked hard enough. You could even find an idiot with a lofty title - somewhere in local government, or maybe middle management at a reasonably-sized company - saying idiot things. This idiot didn't even get a bill passed - he just submitted one. From the look of things, his district's got about 7000 people in it, and being modern America, there's probably a ~couple percent swing in either direction at play in any election, so this idiot managed to convince maybe a couple hundred other people in Montana that he was the best option - and who knows, the other guy might've been an even bigger idiot. I agree, there are troubling trends in the country, and I agree that those trends require action. But this idiot isn't a trend, he's an idiot, and no matter how much action we take and how much success we have, there'll always be another idiot out there, proudly crowing their idiocy. My point is that spending any time at all letting your dander get up because an idiot said an idiot thing is wasting time and energy you could better use on other things. More broadly stated - I get my dander up when the house and senate pass a bill that the president signs. I get my dander up when the state of Texas bans abortions, and the Supreme court upholds it. I get my dander up when the Alameda County Sheriff blows a $300M budget and still neglects inmates to death. But I'll be damned if I'm going to waste my dander on some jackass state senator grandstanding in rural Montana. I've got better things to spend my time on, and so do you.

roughly 4y ago

Even before Carl Sagan's day, you could find some idiot saying idiot things somewhere, if you looked hard enough. You could even find an idiot with a lofty title - somewhere in local government, or maybe middle management at a reasonably-sized company - saying idiot things. This idiot didn't even get a bill passed - he just submitted one. From the look of things, his district's got about 7000 people in it, and being modern America, there's probably a ~couple percent swing in either direction at play in any election, so this idiot managed to convince maybe a couple hundred other people in Montana that he was the best option - and who knows, the other guy might've been an even bigger idiot. I agree, there are troubling trends in the country, and I agree that those trends require action. But this idiot isn't a trend, he's an idiot, and no matter how much action we take and how much success we have, there'll always be another idiot out there, proudly crowing their idiocy. My point is that spending any time at all letting your dander get up because an idiot said an idiot thing is wasting time and energy you could better use on other things. More broadly stated - I get my dander up when the house and senate pass a bill that the president signs. I get my dander up when the state of Texas bans abortions, and the Supreme court upholds it. I get my dander up when the Alameda County Sheriff blows a $300M budget and still neglects inmates to death. But I'll be damned if I'm going to waste my dander on some jackass state senator grandstanding in rural Montana. I've got better things to spend my time on, and so do you.