More About Who’s to Blame for Trump

Posted on Monday 7 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • A Slate writer responds to NYT’s David Brooks about how the “elites” are to blame for Trump culture;
  • A David Brin post;
  • Some quick links with comments…
  • Phil Plait on seeing the Milky Way;
  • And George Michael’s “You Have Been Loved”

Here’s another response to the David Brooks NYT piece blaming “elites” for the rise of Trump, as discussed, along with a rejoinder by Vox writer Zack Beauchamp, three days ago. My reaction to Brooks’ thesis was “Professional positions are occupied by people with educations, and the uneducated feel resentful?” and “Whats the alternative?”

Slate, Christina Cauterucci, 7 Aug 2023: Enough With the False Narrative About Trump’s Rise, subtitled “What exactly does David Brooks want ‘anti-Trumpers’ to do?”

The essay is roughly 8 screens long, and Christina Cauterucci is “a Slate senior writer.”

Continue reading →

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America’s Dominance and Decline

Posted on Sunday 6 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Just one substantial item today, compared to the several posted yesterday. If America is so great by some economic and military standards, why is our quality of life, compared to so many other countries around the world, so poor?

Concluding with Radiohead’s “Let Down”.

[Caption to the photo: “The parking lot is nearly deserted at Forest Plaza on March 24, 2020 in Rockford, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)”]

Salon, Mike Lofgren, 5 Aug 2023: Why America is going backward: Being the richest nation in history isn’t enough, subtitled “America is the greatest economic and military power in world history — and our quality of life is garbage. But why?”

As in some previous posts, I’m reading this only as I sit down post about it. Before beginning to read, I’ll note the observation that, despite what the MAGA folks believe, in terms of quality of life the US is far from the greatest nation in the world.

And then I’ll begin by asking a question of the article before I read it: to what extent is this the result of partisan politics, or is it something peculiarly American that lies beyond politics? (Spoiler: the answer turns out to be: both.)

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Posted in Culture, Human Progress, Religion | Comments Off on America’s Dominance and Decline

Saturday Updates

Posted on Saturday 5 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • More from NY Times on Republican plans to let climate change wreck the planet;
  • Updates on stories about DeSantis slitting throats and A.P. Psychology in Florida;
  • Another story about a Republican claiming credit for a Biden initiative that he fought;
  • How “Sound of Freedom” has the hallmarks of the modern right-wing worldview;
  • How Trumps lawyers keep quitting, and the latest ones are dumb and dumber.

NY Times, 4 Aug 2023: A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy, subtitled “Project 2025, a conservative ‘battle plan’ for the next Republican president, would stop attempts to cut the pollution that is heating the planet and encourage more emissions.”

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Figuring Out Trump Voters

Posted on Friday 4 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Two views to explain the loyalty of Trump voters.

There was a long NYT op-ed by David Brooks posted a couple days ago and printed in today’s paper, offering an irresistible counter-intuitive thesis. And a response today by a writer for Vox. And my perspective given the Sagan/Druyan book I just read, and my own recent understanding.

NY Times, David Brooks, 2 Aug 2023: What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?

Brooks wonders, as do many of us, why so many people still support Trump, despite… everything.

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Sagan & Druyan: Propensities and Predispositions

Posted on Friday 4 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

A couple hours ago I finished that Carl Sagan/Ann Druyan book I mentioned a couple days ago, SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS, and it’s remarkable how its conclusions resemble my own recent observations about how certain forms of human morality align to conservative politics, and Trump worship.

Here are passages from the last three pages. Keep in mind the book is about the history of life on Earth and how the study of all life, but in particular the lives of other primates, illuminates our understanding of ourselves. Also keep in mind that the book was published in 1992. Yet from the middle of the third paragraph below, it could be about today.

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More on the Latest Indictment

Posted on Thursday 3 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Goofy Republican responses to the latest indictment, about Federal employees, and to the teaching of psychology;
  • The spectacle goes on and on, as the US experiences what some are saying is the most important legal indictment in its history:
  • John Scalzi’s take, in particular about con men;
  • A meaty piece at Politico about how people who support authoritarian con men, like Trump and Putin and Orbán, are also susceptible to conspiracy theories.
  • And some thoughts about disruptive events and the sunken-cost fallacy.

These first three are from a site that obviously tracks such items.

Joe.My.God, 3 Aug 2023: Jordan: “Hillbillies Are So Sick Of Attacks On Trump”

The relevance of this item to my discussions in recent days about conservative morality is left as an exercise for the reader.

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Posted in Politics, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on More on the Latest Indictment

Conservative Morality

Posted on Wednesday 2 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Items today respond to the latest indictment of a certain former president, how his supporters respond, and me trying to wrap my mind around what his supporters think morality and law and order actually is. But I have an idea about that, based on my recent reading about… chimps.

  • With citations of Tom Nichols, Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Jonah Goldberg

Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 1 Aug 2023: This Is the Case, subtitled “Special Counsel Jack Smith has sounded the call, but voters must answer it if they wish to preserve American democracy.”

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Vetting Online News Sources

Posted on Tuesday 1 August 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • About “critical ignoring”, vetting sources of news before you read them;
  • The distractions of the internet;
  • Today’s back-of-the-envelope timeline, from Savannah/tribal morality to Enlightenment values and now back to Savannah/tribal morality.

Here’s a piece, which I probably stumbled upon via Facebook, with a provocative premise, that sounds like it might be aligned with the theme (and title) of the Rolf Dobelli book I read early last year, called STOP READING THE NEWS (review here). As I sometimes do, I haven’t actually read the article yet, but am sitting down to do so while writing this blog post.

The Conversation, Ralph Hertwig et al, 2 Feb 2023: When critical thinking isn’t enough: to beat information overload, we need to learn ‘critical ignoring’

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Posted in Culture, Psychology | Comments Off on Vetting Online News Sources

The Small Town Song and Human Morality, and other topics

Posted on Monday 31 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • More thoughts about that Small Town song, in that it reflects one stage (stage 3 of 6, actually) in a hierarchy of human morality;
  • Facebook posts about religious claims, and Brian Cox’s take on the UFO hearings;
  • And Republican plans to dismantle all climate change mitigations, leading me to wonder if they are alien agents bent on bringing about the end of the human race.
– – –

 

This is my own thought, not something I’ve read — well, indirectly it’s about things I’ve read, but not concerning this song.

There’s a core of truth in the song’s justification of small town justice. Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Lunacy, Morality, Religion | Comments Off on The Small Town Song and Human Morality, and other topics

Doomscrolling Climate Change; and Small Towns

Posted on Sunday 30 July 2023 by Mark R. Kelly
  • The latest about climate change, and wondering when will the conservative deniers admit there is a problem;
  • More about that vigilante justice country song, and Bruce Springsteen.

Perhaps I should cut back on the doomscrolling. I don’t actually scroll looking for doom (and I’m not scrolling a Facebook or any other social media feed, but rather checking a dozen or so favorite news and opinion websites every day), but these are the kind of pieces that catch my eye. I look at articles like these to try to figure out, is humanity doomed by its psychology, fixed over hundreds of thousands of years in a relatively unchanging world? What will it take for the deniers — in the US, the conservatives, the Republicans — to acknowledge that there is a problem, a truly existential threat, and something dramatic needs to be done? (Like giving up fossil fuels ASAP?)

CNN, Ella Nilsen, 30 Jul 2023: Why Republicans can’t get out of their climate bind, even as extreme heat overwhelms the US

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