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Just something to think


Posted: Jan 27, 2017

I'm really taking no stand on this, just something to think about

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I think it's important for Trump and Putin to be cordial - sm

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like Reagan and Gorby were.

Obama was intimidated by Putin - and he now has more confidence.

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Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

And he also has a friend - in the White House

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What more could he ask for?

That old bugaboo strikes again - binary thinking.

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"Friend"/"enemy"..."conservative"/"liberal"..."massive voter fraud"/"no voter fraud"...

We can't jam complex issues into a binary analytical framework and hope to understand them properly. Our mental models have to become more sophisticated.

Thinking - really thinking - is very hard work. It might be understandable if we shirk the labor and leap to shortcuts.

Understandable, but not forgivable. Rational thinking is our DUTY as citizens. Democracy is utterly dependent on people who can think things through, and who know when something is proven and when it is not. We need people who can discern bias in reporting - and reject it - regardless of where it comes from or which "side" it seems to support. We need people who will ask others "How do you know that?" and ask themselves "How do I know that?"

Gullibility, susceptibility to political spin, and the tendency to find support for whatever we WANT to believe...these evils are rampant in our society.

...and today, more than ever, we need people who refuse to engage in label-based thinking OR dialogue. Labeling is one of the most seductive counterfeits to rational thought. Encouraging citizens to label one another is the among the deadliest weapons in the arsenal of the enemies of democracy who want nothing more than a population that has lost its ability to reason.

One of the most vile results of labeling is "identity politics."

Sadly, this substitute for thought now infests our educational system from the earliest grades to graduate schools.

The very minute you find yourself using labels, either internally or in social discourse - STEP BACK! You're on the brink of irrationality.

It isn't what we know that's the problem. It's what we know that isn't so.

Here's an example of the "work" involved in thinking. I don't agree with most of what Representative John Lewis says or does and I felt that his inauguration boycott was disgraceful. I supported Trump, and so it was very tempting to believe what Trump tweeted about Lewis and his district being a disaster, etc.

Oh boy! Ammunition for the fight! But I didn't just hit retweet. I care too much about my own integrity. I wanted to know for myself if that was true.

So, I visited several government and other websites that have demographic information about each congressional district. This didn't take more than perhaps 20 minutes, and what I learned was that Trump was either misinformed or exaggerating. The district that Lewis represents is neither near the bottom of the pile in terms of household income, educational levels, rate of violent crime, high school graduation rates, property values, home ownership rates, etc., nor is it near the top. On most measures, it falls somewhere about in the middle.

This didn't threaten my position regarding Lewis. It didn't suddenly turn me into a Lewis supporter - nothing could do that. Disagree profoundly, yes. Still think his inauguration boycott was disgraceful and petty. But I have avoided the serious mistake of supporting my opposition to his positions and his behavior with false information that would have been very easy to believe.

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