The last few days, I haven't posted. I've just been watching it all auger in. Appalling ignorance and anti-science became Flavor of the Day on the political Right a long time ago, but the rise of Robert Kennedy, Jr. among Democrats has been as disappointing as it has been predictable: the anti-vax, quack-medicine Left has a long and lurid history, after all.
At a time when technical and scientific literacy are key skills for human survival, when a solid grounding in real history is the only way to grasp the implications of current world events, nonsense is becoming ever more popular.
This kind of superstition and preference for comfortable fables that confirm one's preconceptions over awkward truths (and best-fit scientific theories) is how civilizations grind to a halt and begin to decline. I can't stop it. I don't know how much of the inevitable damage I can personally avoid.
It's not an easy thing to blog about. I'm not sure what's next, but my bet is that it won't be good. And the partisan finger-pointing will be epic -- and useless.
Update
4 days ago
2 comments:
Back in 1961, we were taught that over-crowding of test animals resulted in high levels of insanity among them (or so the people doing the testing surmised from their observations). I still think that we are tackling symptoms rather than the huge problem of over population. Just think how much less climate change and ecological damage there would be were the human population only 1/10 of what it is today. Even if the "insanity" theory is not true, the payoff of reduced population would be significant. Of course, one could argue that those who start our wars are trying to achieve that reduction.
I went to a presentation that was given by RFK,Jr. some years ago. It was clear, at least to me, that something was not quite right in the head with him. He couldn't keep concepts together and kept veering off into Ya-Ya Land.
He's a loon, plain and simple.
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