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How Last Night's Debate Proved the Dumbing Down of America is Real

Posted by $ Olduglycarl 7 years, 6 months ago to Humor
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You'll never guess what reading level last night's debate was at.

Told ya the once Useful idiots, in the early 1900's, continuing the dumbing down trend to the present has created UseLESS idiots and they all work in or wana be, In Government to rule over YOU!
SOURCE URL: http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/how-last-nights-debate-proved-dumbing-down-america-real


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  • Posted by $ Abaco 7 years, 6 months ago
    When I was watching Trump I thought, "Why couldn't he have had at least the knowledge I gained in my first critical thinking class in college?" This debate was just BEGGING for him to stomp her positions and character into the ground and he just ranted over and over about China, etc. I really felt physical anguish over that. This article explains it, I guess...
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    • Posted by ProfChuck 7 years, 6 months ago
      I used to teach at a local community college. One day I noticed a bunch of books in in the trash outside the school library. They were all books on critical thinking and logical analysis. I salvaged them and then asked the librarian why they were being discarded. She said they were sexist, racist, and homophobic and had no place in the library because they were culturally insensitive. I took them home and added them to my personal library. I have studied them carefully and found no evidence that they could be deemed offensive. That was 15 years ago! Things have gotten much worse since then.
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    • Posted by fosterj717 7 years, 6 months ago
      A "dumbed down" nation is guaranteed to end up with a "dumbed down" president and Congress. That is the nature of the animal.

      Cicero said that a nation deserved its leaders. Taken to its logical conclusion, if the electorate is lazy, stupid and looking for something for nothing, there will always be a "sleazeball" politician (notice I said politician and not statesman-woman) that will act foolishly and give the "Rubes" exactly what they want regardless of the damage and destruction they are doing to the country and our once great society!

      Look into the mirror! We have met the enemy and the enemy is us - getting just what we deserve!
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      • Posted by $ 7 years, 6 months ago
        That's the Problem...No one is observing their OWN behavior.
        Being able to observe one's own behavior is a sign of Consciousness...so, what's the logical conclusion?
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        • Posted by fosterj717 7 years, 6 months ago
          I say that the logical conclusion will be determined by the outcome. If one were to use logic, the outcome for the most part is easily predictable.

          Obama said what he wanted to do, how he wanted to do it and then for the most part followed through. The end results were arguably quite predictable. What was not predictable was the fecklessness of the "loyal opposition" within the Beltway political class! Outcome reached, logic again won out even though it is a hollow victory.

          Now we are heading into uncharted territory whereas the outcome based on where we are will probably end up being tyranny by a despot. That is about where we are wouldn't you say?
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    • Posted by CircuitGuy 7 years, 6 months ago
      I don't think it's as grim as the article suggests. The article accepts the debate at face value as a debate on the issues. I think the candidates actually focused on a few small segment of voters.

      In very very loose terms, Republicans are a coalition of people who a) want gov't out of their way and limited by the Constitution and b) rednecks. The Democrats are a coalition of people a) who want a handout in some form or another and b) people who don't want to vote for rednecks. The object of the debate is to convince undecided people, many of whom aren't that into the details, that the Republican is an extreme redneck or the Democrats is a supporter of extreme handouts.

      An example of this is Clinton delivered a prepared line about Trump being sexist, and Trump had no pre-prepared comeback. So score one for Clinton for making Trump look redneck. Next time Trump will probably have had his experts prepare a comeback that makes him look non-redneck and Clinton look like she favors extreme handouts.

      If you watch it at face value, though, you think "this is our society's idea of discussion public policy!? We've become idiots." That's not right though. It's our idea of using existing urban-vs-rural and egghead-vs-philistine differences to sway people who aren't all that into policy.
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      • Posted by $ 7 years, 6 months ago
        We might have been able to get something out of the debates but the Research stands and the language and exchange was in fact geared toward a 6 year old...there was no "inter-lectual" exchange of ideas; never mind "intellectual or anti-lectual" discussion of compartmentalized bull crap.
        Just a Big Tit for Tat.
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        • Posted by lrshultis 7 years, 6 months ago
          Speaking of a 6 year old, Chris Matthews' interview with Gary Johnson showed how juvenile Matthews could become. He asked a kindergarten question of who is Johnson's favorite world leader. Just as children would do as to favorite color, car, movie, book, etc. Who cares about such tripe in a presidential race.
          I would have no idea how to answer such a question. I would have asked Matthews if he ever studied math and what is his favorite identity equation in advanced math. Like Johnson he probably would not have had an answer of anything other than maybe 2+2=4 of arithmetic. The game of politics has an unlimited number of questions to destroy a candidate. Most dishonest candidates have ready made answers or can create an answer easily. Gary Johnson is too honest to give a BS answer.
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          • Posted by $ puzzlelady 7 years, 6 months ago
            Moreover, there probably is not a single world leader that deserves his admiration. The very concept of leader (Fuhrer, in German) is a throwback to tribal societies and their chieftains, kings, queens, rulers, dictators, despots, overlords. People still crave to subjugate themselves to an alpha who will get them loot by conquest and protection by might.

            America's founders were seeking an enlightened system to free humans from their animal roots. That Gary could not think of one admirable power-wielder is to his credit. Weld's mentioning of Shimon Peres was an inspired move for the Jewish vote. Adding Merkel as an afterthought was for balance. I would not want to name individual heads of state but more the governments that are wise enough to stay out of wars. Say, like Switzerland or Finland, and possibly Denmark; those with a policy of trade, not raid.

            Notice that Gary Johnson probably has a far better grasp of world affairs, without having memorized an encyclopedia, and is honest enough to admit not being omniscient, while Trump blusters and swaggers past his own vast ignorance. Vis a vis other countries' leaders, Hillary is a mere sycophant. To me it is more important that a candidate be able to hold the right principles and be able to learn than to win trivia contests. By that measure, Gary Johnson is tops.
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            • Posted by lrshultis 7 years, 6 months ago
              I suppose he could have given a somewhat sarcastic answer such as the Dali Lama or the Pope. Matthews would then have got himself back into shape and had taken that I-got-you look off his face. I could never be a politician because from an early age I do not wish to look people in the face who are talking to me. I do not want to see any emotional stuff, just hear conceptual ideas. Maybe comes from my mother who would get mad in the face, probably from the malignant tumor that was growing in her brain.
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          • Posted by $ 7 years, 6 months ago
            Yes...but I do wish Gary was more up on the issues in reality...there IS reality to consider about the border, immigration, islamist, (notice I said islamist not islam) and the TTP, not to mention the rights of association.

            My impression of matthews is he went from the boob, right into the news and skipped everything inbetween...probably replaced the boob with booze as well.
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      • Posted by term2 7 years, 6 months ago
        When you have mob rule, this is what happens. It wasnt an intellectual debate at all, or even an interview to show which candidate could do a better job at administering the government in accordance with the constitution. It was essentially a worthless endeavor
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    • Posted by term2 7 years, 6 months ago
      I agree that he could have gone into more fruitful areas where Hillary is very weak. She was good at just ignoring anything he brought up (like she does routinely) and flooding the airwaves with charges against him which would take a long time to answer.

      Perhaps, however, he was waiting to really blow her out of the water a bit closer to the election when she would have less time to combat them.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 7 years, 6 months ago
    The debate was exactly what I expected. Hillary was polished, Trump was completely seat-of-the-pants winging it, and the moderator was a Hillary stooge. All of the media talking heads (including Fox) are discounting any focus group reaction that didn't declare Hillary the winner, even though only the CNN group, which was heavily weighted with an excess of Democrats, swung in her direction.

    More revealing to me were the numbers from the Florida early voting: 880,000 for Trump, 650,000 for Clinton (technically, not really votes, as I think it's the count of Republican and Democrat ballots mailed in). Whether this is an indication of some real surprises ahead, I can't say.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 6 months ago
    Perhaps the mean level of the discussion was lowered by the need to talk to the 30 million voters who do not speak english, and the 10 million illegals who are targets of propaganda even if they don't vote in this election.
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    • Posted by $ 7 years, 6 months ago
      I see your point Freedom, but I personally do not think that there was a purposed dumbing down of the discussion...I think the discussion represented how dumbed down the creatures involved are.
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  • Posted by mia767ca 7 years, 6 months ago
    the goal of govt run schools is to create a loyal citizen....not a critical thinking individual...so far...mission accomplished...one of the exceptions is Debate...i made all my kids take it and participated as judge at all their debates...Debate requires that they debate both sides of the topic and learn to listen and analyse what is being said...and learn the principles of logic and critical thinking...the principles of Objectivism...
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  • Posted by $ Stormi 7 years, 6 months ago
    Our society continues to devolve, as planned by those who made Reagan retain the Dept. of Education, because they needed it - to brainwash and dump down society to be ready for one world government. When I was in school, we not only read Cicero and Virgil, we translated them from Latin. English included all those dead white men, and we loved them for their talent, whom feminists demanded be removed from curriculum. I am starting to believe there is no reversing the trend. People seem to wear stupidity like a badge of honor, want worthless leaders who will tell them what to do, and hopefully will give them enough to live on. College is a place of "socializing", where learning is secondary, or lower. Knowing about the worlds around you and about politicians, beyond their own words is too much stress and work. Example, the end of US control of the Internet comes Friday night, when Obama passes it to commie handlers. I have yet to ask one millennial who even knows it is happening. Worse, I know only one city council member who does know, no county officials, and almost no bank personnel! For the first time our online exchanges could be censored, religion right now is not proected as a topic, and who knows what China will do with our financial records and what they will hack. Yet, I could not even get thelocal paper to do an article letting people know of the change! We ar in serious trouble as a nation. No one notices that Hillary, acting all condescending and fake smile was all drugged up to avoid seizures and could barely walk away from the podium.Trump did not use reason to ignore her taunts and tell her she was childish, and to stick to debate rules, which the moderator did not do either. It was a circus, not a debate. He should have asked why she approved sale of 50% of the uranium in 4 states to Russia, with Bill brokering the deal and walking away with millions. Nope, Trump went off about women and taxes as she led him off track. Not good.
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    • Posted by $ 7 years, 6 months ago
      As I discovered years ago, researching for my first book...the paradigm was turned upside down in their favor 8000 years ago. There were a few ups and downs, a few exceptions, (Early America being a big exception) but it is still upside down today...in fact, it's so twisted that it's inside out and backwards too...now try untwisting that!
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  • Posted by JuliBMe 7 years, 6 months ago
    I'm always disappointed by debates. The candidates never speak about the CONSTITUTION, LIBERTY for all, and government FRAUD and THEFT. (Trump may come close to this last point, HOPEFULLY, next debate). It's all about selling themselves to people who don't pay attention to what's going on. They know people who do pay attention are already sold on their candidate. They never say what I want them to say, never respond the way they should. What I do love, however, is the taking apart and analysis after. The debates are so fleeting in time, but the analysis goes on FOREVER! LOL.
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  • Posted by wiggys 7 years, 6 months ago
    you must be very young, because the dumbing down of America has been exposed by the objectivists starting with Ayn Rand in the 1970's.
    it is inching closer and closer to the complete idiot stage.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 7 years, 6 months ago
    Glad that every week my children, my wife and I have serious discussions about important matters. And we read together. And not surprisingly, every single one of them has been in the gifted program here. Yeah, they are smart, but there are other smart kids who just don't do anything at home but sit on the couch playing video games all evening.
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  • Posted by LibertyBelle 7 years, 6 months ago
    Well, I think Jefferson made a grave mistake in
    setting up UVA. Not only is education not part of
    the proper purpose of government (except maybe
    for police academies, military technical training, and such), as it is not a police function; but, as
    it teaches thought processes, it is something the
    government should definitely not be in charge of. And I think that Jefferson and other import-
    and men of his day were very mistaken not to
    realize this.
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