the dumbification of America ….

[LTMMC]

…. is progressing ever better with more predictable results. In 2017 it merely resulted in a moron moving into the White House. But four years later, SCOTUS has been captured and they are making one ridiculous decision after the other. Cementing the process of knocking down the few remnants of democracy one by one.

And now, even Justice Breyer has been afflicted by it, and two supposed Democratic senators, who refuse to partake in any rescue operations. Packing the Supreme Court? Nooo says Biden, who seems to believe America is still the country it was when he entered politics.

OK, next time the powers of restoration will pick a WH occupant with a brain for a change, and the country will revert to the days before Civil Rights legislation. With SCOTUS forever blocking any avenue for progress returning.

And WHY did all this happen? Because Steve Jobs invented a dumbification device, which saps the energy of average Americans more and more from year to year. And those not preoccupied with forever upgrading and fortifying dumbification-phones with ever more junk stealing free time for thinking independently, can turn their attention to space tourism now. So the few thousand Americans left, who see through all this, will never be able to stem the tide of dumbification swamping the country ever more forecefully.

I am sure very soon, folks will be able to permanently subscribe to REP majorities in both houses of Congress, with the WH and SCOTUS thrown in as jackpot prizes. Who wants democracy anyway, when exciting games are being offered 24/7, and bread lines become available by subscription also.

Well, neither George Orwell nor Aldous Huxley ever dared dreaming of the iPhone, as the main instrument for sending a once-civilized country rapidly from a former almost-democracy into the oblivion of a society fit for consumption only. Consuming items for free -- supposedly -- paid for by credit card overdrafts.

I wonder: does anybody see any alternatives that I am not aware of?

 

[pecksniff]

Since at present most of the new modes of communication are text-based, they encourage literacy.

 

[rae121452]

say whut, now? i can only comprehend 120 characters at a time.

 

[srgreene]

…. is progressing ever better with more predictable results. In 2017 it merely resulted in a moron moving into the White House. But four years later, SCOTUS has been captured and they are making one ridiculous decision after the other./QUOTE]

You post absolutely nothing- zero, diddly squat- to back up your claim. I guess people like you do not need a considered rationale for their "opinions".

Not saying Trump was a great mind, but talk about morons- Biden is in a pretty advanced state of dementia. Doesn't seem to both you one whit. Curious, ain't it?

 

[YDB95]

Not saying Trump was a great mind, but talk about morons- Biden is in a pretty advanced state of dementia. Doesn't seem to both you one whit. Curious, ain't it?

It would be if there were any truth to it. But there is absolutely no evidence Biden isn't in full possession of his faculties. This is just a smear invented by the likes of you, and apparently based on nothing except his age and the fact that he tends to talk slowly in order to avoid stuttering.

 

[Dom70]

It would be if there were any truth to it. But there is absolutely no evidence Biden isn't in full possession of his faculties. This is just a smear invented by the likes of you, and apparently based on nothing except his age and the fact that he tends to talk slowly in order to avoid stuttering.

guffaw.....oops...sorrieeeeee...

 

[LTMMC]

thanks for your comments so far

I had been afraid a bit that a post longer than five sentences in a row would not be read, but I was wrong.

And only srgreene has been unable to understand the difference between the outlier Trump and almost any other occupant of the White House. So maybe there exists some hope that my post might be a slight exaggeration

 

[Dribble]

The problem of posting more than 5 sentences is that it exposes the flaws in your premise. Our educational system has been broken for over 40 years. Critical thinking no longer exists. People read an opinion...or a statement...and take it as fact instead of investing a minute to investigate the realities of the comment. Tech tools may have sped up the process,, but they are not the cause.

Or maybe...it isn't even our educational system that failed...but our moral system? Why won't people get vaccinated? Fine...you don't want to be vaccinated...why won't you wear a mask? Why does your belief overrides public safety? See my point? People are unwilling to even search for the truth...and instead more willing to promotes lies for the gain of their political beliefs...their moral failures. Education can only do so much.

That is not saying our educational system isn't broken. It is. But even if it was magically fixed, the issue you are describing i do not believe would be fixed. Selfishness rules. And that is a moral issue.

 

[LTMMC]

An Ugly Truth

The problem of posting more than 5 sentences is that it exposes the flaws in your premise. Our educational system has been broken for over 40 years. Critical thinking no longer exists. People read an opinion...or a statement...and take it as fact instead of investing a minute to investigate the realities of the comment. Tech tools may have sped up the process,, but they are not the cause.

Or maybe...it isn't even our educational system that failed...but our moral system? Why won't people get vaccinated? Fine...you don't want to be vaccinated...why won't you wear a mask? Why does your belief overrides public safety? See my point? People are unwilling to even search for the truth...and instead more willing to promotes lies for the gain of their political beliefs...their moral failures. Education can only do so much.

That is not saying our educational system isn't broken. It is. But even if it was magically fixed, the issue you are describing i do not believe would be fixed. Selfishness rules. And that is a moral issue.

you got a point Dribble, and I thank you for making it.

And now a retraction is in order, regarding my opening post: Steve Jobs has not been the main villain when it comes to the perils of the internet and the dumbification of Ameria. And of the whole world by now.

The worst villains have been Zuckerberg and Sandberg, as described in the book “An Ugly Truth”. A good friend has sent me a book review that appeared on forward.com which explains the perfidious scheme of Facebook rather well. Here a link to it: https://forward.com/culture/472950/...e&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email Article

I have not read the book yet, but I shall do so. Authors are two NY Times investigative reporters, and what the review claims seems a very plausible explanation to me of Facebook’s business model.

And the most terrible fact of all: instead of FB getting shut down, or regulated severely, they still receive reverence from practically everybody, including Wall Street. And with a majority of SCOTUS Justices being obsessed now with First Amendment matters, I cannot see the golem Facebook ever getting curbed within our lifetime.

Remember “Fantasia” from 1940? And the story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DX2yVucz24&t=231s

 

[Dribble]

There was an NPR segment on a new book a week or 2 ago...by 2 female authors. They invested several years into researching it. The segment was quite good. I believe you can listen to it via NPRs podcast link. It very well could be this book.

 

[LTMMC]

There was an NPR segment on a new book a week or 2 ago...by 2 female authors. They invested several years into researching it. The segment was quite good. I believe you can listen to it via NPRs podcast link. It very well could be this book.

I suspect so also.

I began reading thhe "look into the book" Kindle version, and it sounds mighty interesting. And revealing as well

 

[AlexBailey]

I think that some of the 'dumbification device' you are referring to is better represented in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451


Written in 1953, it's quite prophetic when it talks about the "parlor walls" that people are willing to spend great amounts of money on to have full-wall video screens installed on as many walls as possible with the goal of 360° coverage. Then they would have vapid AIs to keep them entertained.

 

[CornusKousa]

Oh look!!

Another "orange man bad" thread.

 

[Rightguide]

It would be if there were any truth to it. But there is absolutely no evidence Biden isn't in full possession of his faculties.

This is why nobody should take anything you say seriously. You have a unique singular ability to witness a train wreck and then tell yourself it couldn't have happened because nobody handed you the NTSB report saying it did. This of course verifies what the rest of us have known all along, you aren't a competent, reliable, witness.

 

[MMM_wms]

I think that some of the 'dumbification device' you are referring to is better represented in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451

Written in 1953, it's quite prophetic when it talks about the "parlor walls" that people are willing to spend great amounts of money on to have full-wall video screens installed on as many walls as possible with the goal of 360° coverage. Then they would have vapid AIs to keep them entertained.

Sure, dumbification can take many different path. If I recall, 451F is the temperature at which paper -- and books in particular -- burn self-sustainbly. And burning books denote getting rid of prior knowledge.

 

[YDB95]

This is why nobody should take anything you say seriously. You have a unique singular ability to witness a train wreck and then tell yourself it couldn't have happened because nobody handed you the NTSB report saying it did. This of course verifies what the rest of us have known all along, you aren't a competent, reliable, witness.

Oh please, you can't even be bothered to think of original insults for Biden. The thing is, I can totally imagine that you honestly believe the nonsense about his mental health because of the "news" sources you use.

 

[LTMMC]

There was an NPR segment on a new book a week or 2 ago...by 2 female authors. They invested several years into researching it. The segment was quite good. I believe you can listen to it via NPRs podcast link. It very well could be this book.

Thank you Dribble, for pointing this interview out to me. I found the link you mentioned, and indeed NPR interviewed exactly these two authors on this book. https://www.npr.org/2021/07/13/1015...ables-hate-and-disinformation?t=1626537067197

Amazing how many perfidious actions of FB come to light in the interview alone. Revealed by employees of Facebook, who were concerned about FB aiding the Trump campaign in 2016, in order to maximize facebook clicks and advertising income for ZUckerberg's company.

And the book itself reveals even more about a business model of a condemnable company, and about how FB kept adapting their actions, ad hoc often, to accomodate the lies Trump was spreading.

 

[jaF0]

"TLC (originally an initialism for The Learning Channel) is an American pay television channel owned by Discovery, Inc. Initially focused on educational and learning content, by the late 1990s the network began to primarily focus towards reality series involving lifestyles, family life, and personal stories. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLC_(TV_network)


That may not have been the beginning, but it was certainly a sign of the escalation.

 

[Adre]

Meanwhile, 35% of America has chosen to continue the COVID pandemic, speaking of dumbfuckery.

 

[Rightguide]

Oh please, you can't even be bothered to think of original insults for Biden. The thing is, I can totally imagine that you honestly believe the nonsense about his mental health because of the "news" sources you use.

Medical professionals, including the the former White House physician, have said he is diminished and should take the same cognitive test Trump took. Those are not news "sources" they are credible sources actually seen and heard on the news.

 

[Rightguide]

Meanwhile, 35% of America has chosen to continue the COVID pandemic, speaking of dumbfuckery.

Yearly, roughly 48% of the American people elect not to take the annual flu vaccine. So why are you surprised? In addition, there is medical news today that negative reactions to the Covid vaccine far exceed all of the known negative reactions to that of all of the vaccines combined going back to and beyond the Polio vaccine. Then you have the government and the White House telling vaccinated people they should continue wearing masks, which does very little to convince people the vaccine actually works in the first place.

 

[jomar]

Medical professionals, including the the former White House physician, have said he is diminished and should take the same cognitive test Trump took. Those are not news "sources" they are credible sources actually seen and heard on the news.

What legitimate and credible medical professionals?

The former White House physician was a trump lackey now trying to run for office so is taking pot shots at Biden about taking the test.

 

[Rightguide]

What legitimate and credible medical professionals?

The former White House physician was a trump lackey now trying to run for office so is taking pot shots at Biden about taking the test.

So, all you have is another lie. Everything you can't refute is a lie.

 

[jomar]

So, all you have is another lie. Everything you can't refute is a lie.

I guess you don’t remember that guy and aren’t up to speed on him. Meanwhile you continue to fail to back up your claims with credible sources.

Also, you might want to rethink your last sentence.

 

[Adre]

Yearly, roughly 48% of the American people elect not to take the annual flu vaccine. So why are you surprised? In addition, there is medical news today that negative reactions to the Covid vaccine far exceed all of the known negative reactions to that of all of the vaccines combined going back to and beyond the Polio vaccine. Then you have the government and the White House telling vaccinated people they should continue wearing masks, which does very little to convince people the vaccine actually works in the first place.

99.5% of current COVID hospitalizations are unvaccinated people. Welcome to Dumbistan.