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I've been thinking about a post by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
atpo_onm last night in which he tries to demonstrate that a goodly number of people on the far right are crazy. I tend to look at the same data and come to the conclusion that they are just profoundly stupid. It's not that there is a big shortage of people on the left and in the middle who are also stupid. It just seems these days I have no patience with the stupid among the conservatives. Ah, you say these people can't be stupid. They have all the right degrees from the right places. (Okay, Rush Limbaugh went to S.E. Missouri State, not the greatest institution of higher learning on the planet. But I can tell you that I have cousins who went there, who got their degrees, and who neither show any signs of insanity or nor gross stupidity.) I have to say that I've known folks who've attended some of the great educational institutions of the world who've come out educated, but otherwise more or less brainless. It isn't just American schools that educate without improving wisdom. I've known people with grade school educations who were quite wise, and of course, those with the same level of potential, but minimal education who were an embarrassment to be around. I don't know if it's possible to train someone to both think critically and to actually use that skill in making judgements in their daily life. But for now it certainly seems that you can lead a child to school, but you can't make them grow up smart.
Speaking of education, I was thinking ofatpo_onm's post last night when I was watching Sleepy Hollow. It's not that the episode was particularly anti-historical. No, it was that it was typically anti-historical, that bothered me. Typical for Hollywood norm, I should say. In fact, being anti-historical in a fantasy show like Sleepy Hollow shouldn't bother me so much at all, but it did.
( spoilers )
atpo_onm last night in which he tries to demonstrate that a goodly number of people on the far right are crazy. I tend to look at the same data and come to the conclusion that they are just profoundly stupid. It's not that there is a big shortage of people on the left and in the middle who are also stupid. It just seems these days I have no patience with the stupid among the conservatives. Ah, you say these people can't be stupid. They have all the right degrees from the right places. (Okay, Rush Limbaugh went to S.E. Missouri State, not the greatest institution of higher learning on the planet. But I can tell you that I have cousins who went there, who got their degrees, and who neither show any signs of insanity or nor gross stupidity.) I have to say that I've known folks who've attended some of the great educational institutions of the world who've come out educated, but otherwise more or less brainless. It isn't just American schools that educate without improving wisdom. I've known people with grade school educations who were quite wise, and of course, those with the same level of potential, but minimal education who were an embarrassment to be around. I don't know if it's possible to train someone to both think critically and to actually use that skill in making judgements in their daily life. But for now it certainly seems that you can lead a child to school, but you can't make them grow up smart.Speaking of education, I was thinking of
atpo_onm's post last night when I was watching Sleepy Hollow. It's not that the episode was particularly anti-historical. No, it was that it was typically anti-historical, that bothered me. Typical for Hollywood norm, I should say. In fact, being anti-historical in a fantasy show like Sleepy Hollow shouldn't bother me so much at all, but it did. ( spoilers )