Even in the most unsophisticated years of my youth, I would have never bought something so impossibly simplistic as Sowell’s “said so and so” — and the Right’s ubiquitous belief that “everybody believed Iraq had WMD.”
My mind would never allow me to accept something so easily.
I don’t know how people find the path of least resistance so satisfying — as I love the demands of difficulty and discernment.
To not step up my game in the midst of opportunity or challenge — would be tantamount to treason upon my very existence.
His acolytes have no interest in such a demanding way of life — as defending the faith is all that matters in the religious-like following around Sowell.
They spread the gospel by mindlessly countering with boilerplate beliefs that have no bearing on the issues in question.
What works with them would never fly with me. If you oversimplify an issue that clearly calls for careful examination, I know you’re hiding something.
If you constantly complain about the other side and defend your own at every turn — you’re not playing by the rules you rail on others for failing to follow.
Occasional criticism of your own party doesn’t qualify as having a history faithful to objective scrutiny.
By the way: How come Sowell’s not a “National Treasure” for his spot-on assessment of Trump in 2016? If you wanted to justifiably honor him as a Maverick — here was your chance to deliver:
As he did
Perfectly crafted common sense . . .
Advertised and delivered . . .
Heroes in Error
Which option below would you choose if you wanted to understand a fairly complex concept? For me, it’s whatever it takes to get me where I wanna go.
I wish I were smart enough to read the JavaScript language spec and pick it up all on my own. Then again, I love the demands of difficulty and overcoming obstacles in a journey.
But I can’t do it alone
I need the help of amazing minds from my multitude of sources that increasingly grows the more I learn and advance my skills.
When I returned to this topic last weekend, I almost got it in the first video. In the face of such phenomenal work (or any sincere effort, for that matter): It would be unthinkable for me to blame the source because I have to work a little harder.
I was equally impressed by the 2nd video. He furthered my grasp on my question — and enhanced my overall understanding to boot. And the icing on the cake: He taught with this magical tool I had never heard of before.
This — is pure gold
3rd and 4th tries
Found that amazing graphic and a guy that ranks with the best I’ve ever seen in any discipline.
My gap paved the way to pay dirt — but only because I kept digging. Now I’m totally tapped into the internals, and I’ve got new tools to advance my knowledge on that front and many more.
The answer was there all along — I just needed to train my mind to see it.
Works the same way here . . .
Einstein borrowed from the one below:
The worth of man lies not in the truth which he possesses, or believes that he possesses, but in the honest endeavor which he puts forth to secure that truth; for not by the possession of, but by the search after, truth, are his powers enlarged, wherein, alone, consists his ever-increasing perfection. Possession fosters content, indolence, and pride.
Are you telling me that you can’t comprehend Call Sign “Maverick” but I can comprehend the Call Stack? There are coders who could blow me out of the water with knowledge I’ll never know: With the Call Stack being child’s play to them.
And yet, Sowell’s misdeeds would escape some of them too. How could that be?
And why not . . .
Try this on for size
How could that be?
And why wouldn’t you burden yourself by asking even a single question? Because you don’t wanna know the truth. Anyone who wanted to see — would not behave in ways that make sure damn sure they never will.
And this is one of the ways you pull it off with ease . . .
An unarmed teen in Florida was shot and killed today — he was black and the guy with the gun wasn’t
At that moment — that’s all I know
Race relations, gun control, stand-your-ground laws, black, white, whatever — none of that even enters my mind.
It instantly enters yours — because you got into the habit of letting people put it there.
You’d think that a party that prides itself on intellectualism would examine the efficacy of their efforts. Perhaps even try some predictive analysis:
We’ve got the first black president in the White House and we’re marching to Black Lives Matter.
That might be overplaying our hand and have unintended consequences.
When it comes to ascertaining the truth, I don’t care what your cause is, who’s in the White House, who controls Congress or the courts.
I learned early on in life that what you want gets in the way of what you see:
We must agree that it was watermelon and consider what it means: Maybe nothing, maybe everything. But you pollute the debate when you won’t even acknowledge the irrefutable.
Worse than that — you poison your purpose . . .
On that front — and this one
America is so poisoned by politics that you can’t even see when someone’s not political. And what’s worse — you don’t want to.
Every response is predicated on perception and presevering it at all costs. There’s not even a notion of given & take to allow for fluid discussion that would require you to reconsider what you see.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to change your mind entirely — but maybe there’s some middle ground that could prove fertile for your cause.
But you cling to your baggage-based beliefs for dear life, because if they’re not true — you’ll open a window to realities you’ve spent much of your life denying.
Incredibly, I’m even assailed on things we agree on — because you instantly assume that any criticism of your beliefs, is an attack on all of ’em.
That’s at the core of “baggage claims” — empty assertions applied on perception alone. The baggage might be based in some truth with justifiable concerns. But to indiscriminately conclude guilty or innocent by association:
Is not smart, not just, and counterproductive to your cause.
That baggage you carry is weighing you down — along with all of America and the world at large. And I assure you — there are powerful forces in play that have no interest in ever lightening your load.
Who do ya think Roger Ailes was targeting below?
People don’t want to be informed, they want to feel informed
Did he really say those exact words? That quote is the irrefutable record of what happened on Fox — so it doesn’t matter.
To be sure, the Left has gone off the rails in following suit to feel informed. And all the while, the Right celebrates freedom by slinging snippets of certitude in a ceaseless cadence of crap.
I didn’t write Mariana Trench of Mendacity from my imagination.
There’s a classic scene in Seinfeld that delightfully illustrates the divide between declarations of virtue and delivering on them
America was built on hypocrisy — why bother messing with tradition?
The Right delights in ridiculing the Left for burning buildings to further the cause. Yet they went batshit crazy after 9/11: Setting the world ablaze — and browbeating anybody out of line in their March of Folly.
Of all those in that crowd I’ve challenged on WMD — their knowledge combined could fit into a thimble with space to spare.
On this story, 10 pages of reading trumps 10,000 hours of TV — cable clans & broadcast to boot.
And that’s a fact — I did the math:
Who cares about 10 pages when “You Can’t Believe Everything You Read”?
Same standard to snub someone who’s read 10,000 — on world-altering affairs you snicker at.
And I noticed “You can’t believe everything you read” only applies to words you don’t like.
It’s as apples & oranges as it gets to compare my efforts against the accepted standard of social media norms. However difficult your task, you’re not taking on the entire nation.
As I wrote on Without Passion or Prejudice in reference to the opening image:
Half the country is with me on this — and I just lost the other half. Had I started with the image below — it would be the opposite half.
By just recognizing that the challenges I face are different than the standard fare in America — you might find some appreciation of what I’m up against.
When taking on all of America — you can’t just lay it all out in a linear fashion. I faced this same problem in structuring my documentary and even in the naming of it . . .
What’s with the different names of your doc?
What’s with your mindset that necessitates massaging it with harmonious headlines? How do you convey fair-mindedness in a culture that instantly supports or scorns on lickety–split perception alone?
Alas, I have to factor for this “having said that” culture we’ve created — where you’ve gotta pamper your audience to pave the way for what you really wanna say.
Utterly ridiculous
And after you’ve soothed their minds with some degree of shared scrutiny — that goodwill goes right out the window the moment you mention anything that challenges their calcified convictions.
The rotor speed required to separate uranium isotopes doesn’t care who’s president.
In order to maintain such speeds, the material properties of centrifuges are as critical as it gets. You don’t need to interview a world-renowned nuclear scientist to figure that out — but I like to be thorough.
The notion that it’s my fault you can’t find your way to the truth through my maze of a website — is preposterous, particularly because you have a choice:
The documentary is structured to the hilt — so it’s much easier to digest.
Why would I repeat that approach — when I’m dealing with your obstinate refusal to watch it in the first place?
- In a culture that considers a long paragraph to be a burden
- Where battling it out 280 characters at a time is seen as meaningful debate
- Where habitually slinging self-congratulations and high praise for people who’d repeatedly rehash the same topics till the end of time before they’d question the efficacy of their efforts
You’re gonna find fault no matter what I do.
With just a little inquiry and an ounce of decency — you could gain some insight into why my material is arranged in ways you’ve never seen. And when you’re seeing it for the first time — you’re unaware of the endless efforts to reach your kin who came before you:
It is as though with some people — those who most avidly embrace the “we are right” view — have minds that are closed from the very get-go, and they are entirely incapable of opening them, even just a crack.
There is no curiosity in them. There are no questions in their minds. There are no “what ifs?” or “maybes.”
— Laura Knight-Jadczyk
So spare me your cries that my site is at fault for your failure to find the truth. I’ve heard it all and I’ve seen it all — as your kind always has an excuse laced with self-satisfied scorn.
There’s a mutual responsibility in communication — and that “deal” is to hold up your end of the bargain (and it’s in your interests to do so). After all, you want others to consider your concerns — shouldn’t you do the same?
Wouldn’t some good ol’ give-and-take be refreshing for a change?
But now information is so funneled in a fashion to your liking — you don’t even know what to do with anything that isn’t. It astounds me that wading through unfamiliar territory on this site is somehow seen as complicated as quantum physics.
I assure you . . .
What it took to acquire this information was infinitely more demanding than anything you face here — let alone the complexities in exposing systematic deception at the core of our country’s ills.
I wrote my documentary as a tool for discussion — to illustrate argument in the face of folly . . .
opinions lightly adopted but firmly held . . . forged from a combination of ignorance, dishonesty, and fashion
That’s not the real Thomas Sowell (I’m not even sure he’s on Twitter). Undoubtedly, he would have that many and more. But it just amazes me that you can worship someone while behaving in ways that make a mockery out of the very principles you exalt on a daily basis.
Ridicule just rolls right off me anymore:
I’m not dealing with individuals — I’m dealing with a collective machine that’s been programmed to put me down.
My job is to jam up the gears — and get these gears going again:
I like the cut of your jib, sir
And then there are those memorable moments when someone surprises you with the simplicity and elegance of a line like that.
In a sea of insults, one kind comment is like wind in your sails.
The United States is now a country obsessed with the worship of its own ignorance. . . . [W]e’re proud of not knowing things. Americans have reached a point where ignorance, especially of anything related to public policy, is an actual virtue. To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong about anything.
It is a new Declaration of Independence: no longer do we hold these truths to be self-evident, we hold all truths to be self-evident, even the ones that aren’t true. All things are knowable and every opinion on any subject is as good as any other.
We no longer have those principled and informed arguments. The foundational knowledge of the average American is now so low that it has crashed through the floor of “uninformed,” passed “misinformed” on the way down, and is now plummeting to “aggressively wrong.” People don’t just believe dumb things; they actively resist further learning rather than let go of those beliefs.
I was not alive in the Middle Ages, so I cannot say it is unprecedented, but within my living memory I’ve never seen anything like it.
I know the feeling — all too well
There’s no willingness to say, “I’m wrong.” I mean, you have to take a 2×4 to these people, basically — to get ’em to, sorta, knock ’em down and admit they were wrong.
One Voice Became Two 