Anti-intellectualism Is Killing America

[Anomalocaris]

I dunno ... the shooter in Charleston had references (in his scrabble brained manifesto) that sound a lot like scientific racism (which has been long refuted). So yeah, if we were doing a better job educating our kids, you have to think it would be helpful with social issues like racism. That said, I'm not going to take the leap and say that it would have prevented this shooting (that would be wild speculation).

Better education might mitigate the prevalence of racism overall, but I suspect extreme outlier in behavior such as this is likely the result of some unusual psychological make up.  So it's not clear if one could really estimate what better education might have done for an extreme outlier like this one.

[Minimalist]

Too much bible - not enough intelligence.

[robvalue]

When religion is such a force, and religion sees science as a threat rather than an ally, this is what happens I guess.

If a politician in England said any of that ignorant shit about science, they would be a laughing stock. And I've never once heard of religion trying to fuck around with our teaching in schools, at least in recent times.

Religion is threatened by knowledge and critical thinking. It instead urges people to just believe what they are told and stfu. So I'm not at all surprised that places where religion has a big hold are vulnerable to this.

It's really sad, and I hope that somehow religion's grip on America can be loosened soon so that America is not fighting its own progress.

[Anomalocaris]

Too much bible - not enough intelligence.

Chicken and egg.

[vorlon13]

As for Root, there does seem to be a disconnect between his voiced complaints over blacks and his victims. Had he went and shot up a Blood or Crip franchise instead of a church sparsely filled with pensioners I might find his actions more in line with his words.

I also note, Roof was, as they say, 'shiftless', and that doesn't seem to fit in with his dogma either.

And some apparent drug use too., Beiber haircut (WTF?) friends of a variety of races, if he is the 'best' 'evil' has to offer, I fear for 'evil'.

[abaris]

It seems to me that Conservatives fear intellectuals the most, since educated people ask inconvenient questions. Intellectualism has become a swear word in certain circles.

America is also among those nations that make it the most difficult for a larger number to get any kind of degree. Everything's for sale, including education. And if your parents got no money, chances are you're working at Mc Donalds instead of Wall Street.

[Anomalocaris]

It seems to me that Conservatives fear intellectuals the most, since educated people ask inconvenient questions. Intellectualism has become a swear word in certain circles.

America is also among those nations that make it the most difficult for a larger number to get any kind of degree. Everything's for sale, including education. And if your parents got no money, chances are you're working at Mc Donalds instead of Wall Street.

Not surprising.   Many conservatives I've spoken to justify their views using the notion "I was told it works, therefore you should also believe it works"

[The Grand Nudger]

I dunno ... the shooter in Charleston had references (in his scrabble brained manifesto) that sound a lot like scientific racism (which has been long refuted). So yeah, if we were doing a better job educating our kids, you have to think it would be helpful with social issues like racism. That said, I'm not going to take the leap and say that it would have prevented this shooting (that would be wild speculation).

Better education might mitigate the prevalence of racism overall, but I suspect extreme outlier in behavior such as this is likely the result of some unusual psychological make up.  So it's not clear if one could really estimate what better education might have done for an extreme outlier like this one.

Could just as easily have lead to the individual building a bomb, a good one, rather than gunning a few people down, eh?  Sick people do sick things.  Educated sick people do sick things,  very often leveraging their education as an asset in service of whatever it is they've decided to do.

[nihilistcat]

Granted, we've seen some fairly well educated people do crazy things in the United States (the batman movie shooter was a PhD student in a neuroscience program), so education is certainly no guarantee. However, to say or imply that better education wouldn't give us a much different (and better) country, is almost absurd.

[Anomalocaris]

Better education might mitigate the prevalence of racism overall, but I suspect extreme outlier in behavior such as this is likely the result of some unusual psychological make up.  So it's not clear if one could really estimate what better education might have done for an extreme outlier like this one.

Could just as easily have lead to the individual building a bomb, a good one, rather than gunning a few people down, eh?  Sick people do sick things.  Educated sick people do sick things,  very often leveraging their education as an asset in service of whatever it is they've decided to do.

I don't dispute the "could" part.  I dispute the "just as easily" part.