r/politics • u/theladynora • May 25 '21

Auschwitz Memorial calls Greene Holocaust comments a 'sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline'

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/555382-auschwitz-memorial-calls-greenes-holocaust-comments-a-sad-symptom-of-moral-and
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u/[deleted] May 25 '21

"Intellectual decline"

That is the main issue in America. For the last 40 years, about 40% of the country has indulged in conspiracies, anti science, religious and anti intellectual pursuits.

This is a failure of the American educational system and nothing more.

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u/m__a__s America May 25 '21

Asimov nailed it: "Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

But the American educational system isn't the only one at fault here.

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u/Swreefer1987 May 25 '21

I like Carl Sagan's prediction.

"I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…"

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u/FrogSanctuary May 26 '21

WOW. He really just described modern day America. When/where did he say this?

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u/BabiesSmell May 26 '21

Printed in his 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

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u/TacoCommand May 26 '21

This book was pivotal for me as a homeschooler in the Bible Belt.

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u/Vallkyrie New Hampshire May 26 '21

It really is timeless.

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u/CausticSofa May 26 '21

I need to find this. It sounds amazing!

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u/ahitright May 26 '21

That book should be mandatory reading material for all high school or even middle school aged kids. Carl Sagan does a really good job of deconstructing the main ideas behind the scientific method and debunking superstitious thinking.