SCROLL
You
know the old saying: If the facts are on your side pound the facts, if
the law is on your side pound the law; if both are against you, pound
the table. These days, concepts that used to be simplistic, rugged and
indisputable, like “facts” and “law,” have been yanked back into the
realm of things that must be debated endlessly.
I think the update we need is something like this: Call out the
evidence when the evidence is on your side, and place great weight upon
the popular consensus when it agrees with you. If neither is on your
side, then yank the trolley off the tracks. Go for chaos, hurl some
insults, say a bunch of silly stuff, move the conversation down into
the gutter.
I was noticing this while discussing something with a #NeverTrump guy,
again, on the
Hello Kitty of Blogging .
I suppose the reason I’m noticing this is because it’s inconveniencing
me, and it’s inconveniencing me because I’m actually interested in what
they have to say. I know President Trump doesn’t have a perfect score
when he predicts what’s about to happen, or plies the citizenry with
his interpretations of what did happen, so I’d like to hear the details
when someone calls him a liar. And I’m not automatically dismissing it
by any means. But, I notice, automatic dismissal is what I run into
when I merely ask the question…which seems odd, to say the least.
What
has happened is these young people now getting to college have no sense
of history – of any kind!
And this has become a pattern with the #NeverTrump crowd. You ask them
to explain themselves, you get static. An innocuous question like
“What’s the most egregious lie Donald Trump has ever told?” nets you
all this useless conflict, when it seems like you should be able to get
back a reasonable answer from which a rational back-and-forth
discussion may ensue. Seems they’ve calculated such a thing would not
work to their advantage.
So based on all I’ve seen, I conclude the following. The new
three-point has taken the place of the older one, since we’re living in
a post-metaphysical culture now and “facts” are no longer “facts.” But,
furthermore, the three-point has become a two-point, since in a
post-metaphysical culture, “evidence” doesn’t mean anything either. Two
and two make nine, and you’re a towel!
They
now have been taught to look around them to see defects in America –
which is the freest country in the history of the world – and to feel
that somehow America is the source of all evil in the universe, and
it’s because they’ve never been exposed to the actual evil of the
history of humanity…
It’s bigger than Trump, or #NeverTrump. It’s swollen to consume
everything. Wade on in, ignore any “evidence” and just state your
opinion. If you pick up that the popular consensus goes along with
that, crow in victory, that’s all the “right” or “correct” you need.
You win. If not, then shove the conversation in the dirt. Hurl some
insults, which are bound to be recapitulated…and you win again. Or at
least, you get a stalemate.
Our infatuation with the scam that is
higher
education, has brought us here.
The kids who are currently experiencing, or anticipating, their
ivy-league years think of these thoughts they’ll be properly
credentialed & permitted to have, as complex compared to the
thoughts they’d have if they wore steel-toed work boots. And they’re
probably right. But complexity is just one meaningful attribute. An
even more meaningful consideration is whether the idea is falsifiable,
and so many of these college kids seem to be beginning one year after
they end another one, again and again, without pondering anything
that’s falsifiable. Nothing testable. And so there’s no “must,” as in —
one of my favorite examples — “This bolt head must be 12mm, because
it’s too big for my 7/16″ and too small for my 1/2″.”
Even when they’re ready to ridicule whoever doesn’t go along — in fact,
I would say, especially when they are so ready, and willing — there’s
no test, no way to know for sure. And it seems, no one has ever
explained to them that if there’s no way to know for sure, there’s no
call to denigrate the intelligence or reasoning capacity of someone who
disagrees. Or, for that matter, someone who merely asks to know more.
Or hesitates to go along. They slept through that lecture. But still
want to be taken seriously.
And then they layer more nonsense upon the nonsense that was there
before, whatever it takes, to avoid losing the argument. Arriving at
the right answer has nothing to do with it after awhile. It’s all about
winning. And scolding.
Related:
The Dumbing Down:
What has happened is these young people now getting to college have no
sense of history – of any kind! No sense of history. No world
geography. No sense of the violence and the barbarities of history. So,
they think that the whole world has always been like this, a kind of
nice, comfortable world where you can go to the store and get orange
juice and milk, and you can turn on the water and the hot water comes
out. They have no sense whatever of the destruction, of the great
civilizations that rose and fell, and so on – and how arrogant people
get when they’re in a comfortable civilization. They now have been
taught to look around them to see defects in America – which is the
freest country in the history of the world – and to feel that somehow
America is the source of all evil in the universe, and it’s because
they’ve never been exposed to the actual evil of the history of
humanity…
House
of Eratosthenes Continued
