OLD NEWS. BAD Or, the Dumbing of America. By Paul Fussell. 201 pp. New York: Summit Books. $19.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/13/books/creeping-nincompoopism.html
Read the book. Mr. Fussell pointed out the BAD many years ago, "Mr. Fussell's loathing for television -- which he nominates as the chief cause, along with the collapse of the public secondary school, of our slippery slide" is one of many examples. He touched on many subjects observed at that time. He saw the breakdown of education and civility in both common man and nouveaux rich as big problems. The danger as to what would become wasn't succinct to most of us. But here we are, living in the consequences. It's time for improvements in basic education - education begets civility.
15
It's so obvious it's pathetic.
You need to send your kids to school for as many days each year as we do in the civilised world.
This was covered comprehensively in "The West Wing" more than a decade ago.
It's the same with all the huge problems plaguing the United States. Just do what the smart countries do. It's that simple.
But Americans want to live in a country where citizens die in the street like dogs because they can't afford medical treatment and anyone can buy an assault rifle online.
I hope to live to see the day when a majority of Americans can find the United States on a globe - because I want to live forever.
30
As one who comes from a long long line of educators, whose grandfather escaped the grind of the W. Virginia coal mines and steel mills to become a teacher, author and a professor (Doctor) of educational philosophy and whose father taught history and western civilization, and who myself worked for decades in the education/public policy field, I have said for years that THE worst mistake in education (and there have been many) was the merging of Civics, History and Geography — all important in their own right — into the indefinite morass we call “Social Studies”.
Let’s fix that!
29
In my opinion, the premise of the article (and most comments) is wrong. It isn't that the electorate is stupid or ignorant or doesn't comprehend what is going on. It is that they see alternatives to Trump as significantly unattractive.
They are responding at the most visceral level to the unimaginable inequality around them and the fear of becoming a minority in 'their' (caucasian) country.
8
Stop it with Russia! Yes they were involved in the defeat, but focusing exclusively on Russia detracts from the fact that the Democrats ran a historically bad campaign and that over the past 8 years we have lost the house, the senate, the presidency, and most govenorships. Not to mention running an unlikeable and polarizing presidential candidate, and a VP who was so bland that when I mention his name people stop and say “Who?”
8
I whole heartedly agree with the idea that we need civics education in the schools. But in what form? I fear mandatory pledging allegiance to a flag and perpetuation of the endemic American exceptionalism that passes for patriotism in this country. What we need is and understanding of how our communities function from the bottom up, and how to contribute to them. We need an understanding of our governing principles and how they function at every level. We need an understanding of how the Constitution came to be written and how it is interpreted in our system of law. We need to acknowledge the sacrifices of our veterans and acknowledge the cost of their sacrifices, lest we see them as our servant for our agenda, instead of as defenders of our Democracy. We need to understand who we are as a people, not who we aren't. This bi-partison mess we are in, where one party demonizes the other, and the only rule of law is to win has been our demise. It can only be repaired by the young and through education- of how and why it can work - if anyone still believes that it can.
7
"At least five times a day, on average, this president says something that isn’t true."
I suspect it would be easier to count the times when Trump ISN'T lying.
51
This is where the US stands versus other nations in two telling scores;
Student Math Scores #18
Student Reading Scores #15
Need we way more!
31
People seeking to take citizenship in this country must pass rigorous test about both the history and and constitution of this country. If we made it mandatory to passs this test to vote, and I would accept oral answers for those who cannot read English, we might have better outcomes in elections.
18
We do not need facts. We need real education to make sophisticated people. The debate is being framed as being between lies and facts. Lies are obviously a problem because they are not inteneded to contribute anything and are thus dishonest. Facts are a problem because they are an excuse for not undertanding anything, and are therefore dishonest also. Parroting facts passes for education and sophistication. It gives fools a sense of belonging among their fellow sheep, validation through compliance to a higher authority, and a sense of superiority over those not so eager to parrot the same facts. Humans, as vain as we are, do not have access to truth. The best we can hope for is to make sense of our concepts and experiences in the most honest and compelling way we can. Only when we understand the foundations of our beliefs in our experiences, our conceptual frameworks and in our personal dispositions may we communicate with one another, and be good neighbors.
4
The problem is not all of us, the problem is FOX, Breitbart, and those who listen to and read the lies they peddle. A good part of the country has been systematically brainwashed by The Right and they pass their views on to their children. Maybe we are witnessing the collapse of our civilization, but then again, the song "Eve of Destruction" is a pretty bleak portrayal of the US and it was written in 1964:
Handful of Senators don't pass legislation
And marches alone can't bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
27
Close your eyes and just imagine for a second what it would be like if everyone in this country has access to education and healthcare.
38
Americans chant USA, USA, USA. They pledge allegiance to the flag. They thank our military for its service. Therefore they think they are patriots and great Americans. But they have don't take the time to study or read current events, history or civics. They know nothing about the Constitution. Or they allows those left wing or right wing zealots feed their confirmation bias. They are worshiping idols. They are embracing slogans rather than substance. They are suckers for propaganda. Until this stops, America and its people will see socioeconomic decline. And that's exactly how the plutocrats want it. Greed has no country.
46
Stupid is as stupid does. But when you combine stupidity with greed, power and control, paranoia, and infantile behavior, and lies, then you have a recipe for disaster, Trump. Part of our ignorance is due to the insidious and mind controlling nature of social media. They have hijacked cognitive thinking and real communication, and substituted facile, short form, simplistic, subliminal thoughts which results in people accepting falsehoods, like fake news. Trump without tweets is tantamount to a car without an engine. Take away his lying, moronic tweets and he will disappear into the swamp he came from.
20
I have come to the conclusion that perhaps it is time to let evolution do its thing and select a better example for dominance of the planet. We are actively pushing in this direction regardless. Talk about dumb.
4
Entertain the thought of some form of electromagnetic pulse (a massive solar flare) that destroys all our electronic devices. No more television, radio, internet (gasp), iPhones...
Do we get smarter? Do we learn to “survive”? Do we learn to “think”?
A long time ago, my father taught me the brain is a muscle. If you don’t exercise it...well look around you and you can figure out what he concluded.
7
I really blame the right wing hate media for all the fake news that's out there. This fake news stuff started a long time ago with Rush Limbaugh. He spews his fake news and lies on hundreds and hundreds of radio stations all over the country 5 days a week. And for many people, especially in rural areas, this is the only news they get every day. Is it any wonder they can't separate fact from fiction when Limbaugh spews his fake news lies on the air day after day? And it's the same with FOX News. They are the most-watched news cable network and they have a tremendous influence in brainwashing people to believe fake news and lies about Obama and the Clintons. Journalism is not getting better, it's getting worse by far, especially when many media companies are now being controlled by conservative interests that are just interested in putting conservative fake news propaganda out there. Unless this trend can be reversed somehow, and I don't see that happening, people will continue to be brainwashed to vote against their economic interests and vote for the Republicans
28
Honestly, I also have family members that despite Donald Trump's obvious stupidity they like him and like what he says and does.
Most have been feeding at the public trough all their lives, and Trump has too.
12
Don't forget to throw the highly variable quality of homeschooling into the mixture of toxic stupidity among the American electorate. The desire to homeschool is driven by a segment of the population that wants to control the information their children are exposed to, whether it's evolution or some whacked-out version of evangelical values. These students are showing up in college with no critical thinking skills and a backpack full of lies as they take their place among American voters.
36
Most empires in history have self destructed, many because of stupidity of their rulers or their citizens. we seem to be witnessing both in America.
17
All of this is why Mr. Trump said he loved the under-educated.
It's factual that Russia impacted the election.
This president was like a teen chasing Putin at the Asian summit.
It really is the Kardashian presidency, as he and his family make oodles of money despite credible ethics concerns, and the rest of us just google chrome along commenting and becoming more and more dismayed. Now someone's setting up Al Franken.
Mueller’s team issued a subpoena to Trump’s campaign requesting Russia-related documents multiple officials. That's the only bright spot available to us. We live in horrible times. We were happy with Barack Obama.
21
This country has lost its roots. There are many reasons. A biased press. Social media. So called fake news. The digestion of news in 30 second sound bites. And yes, an abandonment of a basic curriculum that requires learning the history of the United States and its culture. I fear the effort to diversify away from the “dead white males” of our culture has led to us throwing out the baby with the bath water.
4
It's an age old phenomena...the mob or masses can be easily swayed. Check out "Enemy of the People" by Ibsen, it proved to me early in my life that the majority is wrong.
10
Egan once again hit the nail on the head.
7
Per the number of registered voters and the percentage of Democrats vs Republicans there are 8 million more Democrats than Republicans. Democrats have gone to great lengths to describe how stupid Republicans are, and how many ways they are stupid. Democrats also flout how much better educated they are than Republicans. All of this being the case, what explains the extent and depth of losses by Democrats in all branches of government over the last decade?
If one is measured by the strength of their enemies and Democrats constantly find new ways to describe how dumb Republicans are, what does that say about Democrats? They are to blame for their perceived and real ills, not Republicans, but of course this will not be acknowledged.
3
Respectfully, you miss the point. Nobody is arguing the First Amendment should be limited to some notion of truth. The point is a foreign power—one demonstratively adverse to our interests — planted falsehoods about one side in our political process and the side benefiting would not refute any of it. Recall McCain correcting a woman at a rally who said Obama was a Muslim. His integrity would not allow him to use a lie for his benefit. Integrity of our system is essential.
9
The Internet should have helped increase our citizens to become better informed about their history and their responsibility to participate as informed citizens in American democracy. When I look at the phenomenal creation and expansion of a fake news universe, actively led by the current occupant of the Whitehouse, alt-right, or alt-left, religious extremists, and many other organizations, I would conclude that the Internet is a double edged sword; it can be used for benign as well as malignant purposes.
Should I hold the Internet and its “babies” Facebook, and Twitter, etc., responsible for this massive propagation of fake news?
This has been the Republican plan since Saint Ronnie came on the scene in 1980; starve schools of funds so our population becomes dumb and dumber, as it were. You can sell the ignorant anything; the well-educated, not so much. Democrats never figured out how to use ignorance to their advantage.
The plan has worked brilliantly; with a huge percentage of the citizenry obtaining their news through social media rather than reputable news sources, lies are truth, war is peace, and tax cuts for the .1% are the most effective tool for helping the poor, and the shrinking middle class.
Repealing that pesky first amendment will be next.
8
Let me ask you something: if a majority of population is in fact unwise, does that undermine the case for democracy? Why put the fate of a country into the hands of people who don’t know any better?
That’s the reason why my allegiance is with the Communist Party of China. Undemocratic it might be, at least we have stability and growth. After all, you can’t eat or spend your vote - it’s just a piece of paper.
Bread or vote? Sorry, but I opt for the former.
2
There were never any "good old days" when the common people knew fact from fiction. Americans have long been an ignorant lot. Only now mass communication makes it painfully obvious.
5
Trump supporters have seen our democracy sold to the rich by deceptive and corrupt politicians. Of the 63 millions who voted for Trump, many millions are college educated people who know all this stuff about branches of government and the constitution and American history. They simply have no respect for the corrupted government and its institutions.
They have been deceived so many times by both politicians and businesses, by their carefully crafted language and fine print. And it is all legal.
They see almost every one lies to make more money: doctors, college presidents, CEOs ... not only politicians. So millions stopped valuing this so-called “truth”, it did not seem to matter. They see only money has a say in this country, not truth, not knowledge about the constitution and the branches of government, much less Americans history.
Wall Street plunged the country into deep recession by gambling with the country’s finances. Millions lost jobs. Nobody went to jail. It was all legal.
Ignorant and money-driven doctors do great harm by prescribing unnecessary procedures and it is all legal and approved by the government. Do you still believe rule of law is operating? Good for you. That is your “happy truth”.
Trump did not bring this country to where it is, it was those well-educated people who worship money and support ruthless capitalism. It is time to point your finger at people who ruined this country, not at those who turned cynical because of it and elected Trump.
3
This is chilling. We have been dumbed down for the last thirty years, maybe more. Our collective ignorance has been accelerated by the ubiquitousness of cable news, and those outlets which bend the truth to adhere to their world view. A place to go without having to make the effort to understand a viewpoint other than our own. We’re lazy. We’ve allowed a generation and a half to get by without learning the basics of civics or civility. It didn’t take much for a foreign power to recognize our weakness and take advantage the perfect storm that was the 2016 election. Every great society has a shelf life. It used to be we could count on ourselves to collectively solve any problem, prevail in any situation and repel any enemy. Now I’m not so sure. We are indeed with stupid.
3
this is the price we pay for decades of disinvesting in education for rural and working class american school districts.
9
If we want to be honest about intelligence, morality, and wisdom, then I believe that the last 17 years leave us as voters seriously lacking, in that we have had more war, more upheaval with rampant gangs of one tribe or another destroying countries, more refugees, more world disorder, and the rise of more fanatical groups, etc. It looks like we climbed the slide, and have had a merry ride all the way down to the bottom. I didn't vote for George W. Bush either time, voted for Barack Obama first time, not second, and didn't vote for Donald Trump.
Exactly right. Trump is only possible because of the ignorance of Americans. The Founding Fathers have us an almost foolproof system. They just didn't predict this many fools.
5
Its one thing to be ignorant of facts, it's another to be too stupid to care of that ignorance, still another to presume that they understand the facts but don't. Worse still is to cynically manipulate facts and ignorance for political power. Yes, we the people are all to blame ultimately, but what about the enablers? There is a certain evil, and unpatriotic disease rotting out the Republican controlled Congress. They stonewalled Obama purely out of prejudicial and ideological hate, and they then sealed a Faustian bargain with Trump all the while knowing that he is an unhinged lunatic. Many of them know better, and I do blame them.
12
Literally the most depressing and sadly accurate assessment of the US in a while. Please keep going with this.
3
When knowledge is considered elitist, and that opinion is fostered by one of the main political parties and its media arm, because it helps them get and retain power, we head down a dangerous path. It feels like our century is over and we'll head in a decline link past empires. Sad to watch the dream fade, given up willingly by people who resent that some other people are smart rather than seeking to be smarter themselves, and to the benefit of people who don't care as long as they profit.
7
Tim,
As your gift for expression on important issues confronting humankind, this column is not disappointing. I spent most of my waking hours today thinking about what you are bringing to your readers attention at the 300-day mark of the Trump presidency. I agree with your assessment but I don't really agree with your remedy.
I think we need to put more effort into society's fact generation machines: books, history, museums, media/TV, newspapers and organized symposia, schools, etc. In brief I support and effort for the journalism industry to self-police with more vigor. Mr. Trump's 1,600 false or misleading claims is not healthy for our society. Remember he is the leader of the largest economy in the World and is responsible for the heath and safety of the US and our commitments made by treaty.
I think we have waited too long to challenge the President's priorities. I feel certain that if you rank our problems by its impact on the years of life lost, nuclear proliferation, and global climate change would be top priorities.
It concerns me because President Trump has the remarkable talent to capture the attention of the media and his tweets and antics on the World stage can be a distraction from a lot of behind the curtain activities that exploit the natural and human resources that really are not in the best interests of We the People -- the real government of our society.
Anyhow, nothing but praise for your work and your sensitivity to the issues of our time.
6
We seem to be doing fine with "We're with Stupid."
It could have been worse -- it could have been "We're with Crooked."
1
Reason went on holiday when the academic establishment in the U.S. submitted to the absurdist claim advanced by post-modern "philosophers" that the objective validity of a statement could only be determined by the person who received the message, not the message itself. At this point, any fool, and there are millions of them, can reject the meaning of a perfectly clear, sensible and empirically tested statement of fact by simply stating, "I don't get it", or "I'm offended", "duh", or "that's not what my sociology instructor said last week.
2
I am not so sure that ignorance has vastly increased in the last 10 or 20 years. Americans were clueless way before the era of Trump. Anti-intellectualism has been around for a long time, as Richard Hofstadter wrote about back in 1963. When a sports announcer used a big word, he had to say something self-mocking to reassure his audience he wasn't an egghead.
What is difference is that the veneer of wanting to know the truth, the belief that you need evidence to believe something has been replace with Truthiness, that brilliant word invented by Steven Colbert. If you feel it in your gut, it is true. And what you feel in your gut does not have to involve thinking, certainly not critical thinking. You just need to want to believe it, regardless of reality. Trump has just ripped the veneer off of ignorance- you now can just make things up without pretending to know anything- just like he's ripped the veneer off racist ideology.
Yes, Times readers generally value the search for truth. But it is not a value for a large swath of the American people. And without that value, no amount of education will eliminate ignorance, whether it is about the economy, climate change, evolution, or who molested whom.
6
Educators are not failing these students - many of these kids are going home to households in which Fox News is the sole source of political information. As a reader of your books and a career schoolteacher, I was extremely disappointed to see this cheap excuse and casting of blame on hard working public servants.
1
Excellent piece; truly a sad commentary on contemporary America.
Perhaps we could institute a tax credit for people who vote, or a tax surcharge for those who don't. That would be more motivational than a general knowledge quiz. When it's about money, people take it seriously.
As someone seriously considering becoming a teacher for many of the issues this column addresses, there's one thing that's stopping me and it's the knowledge that education can't necessarily fix ignorance. Ignorance is a choice. I've had a front row seat to this mess watching my husband over the past year. He voted for Trump and, for example, is a states rights believer when it comes to the civil war. Yet I'm pretty sure my husband, who is almost done with a master's degree from a reputable college, would ace the citizenship test. He's not stupid. He knows Trump is a liar and I think deep down knows we fought the civil war over slavery, but as someone who grew up poor in the south, Trump and states rights give him some kind of hope for white superiority. He has picked his views for a calculated reason and I think it has to do with the increasing difficulty for people to make a decent living in our country. Racial slurs I never would have heard out of his mouth a year ago I now hear on a somewhat regular basis. Don't placate yourself by thinking these people are stupid. They're not. They know exactly what they're doing and it should scare you.
9
Jared Diamond's excellent book, "Guns, Germs and Steel" pretty much explains what is happening. The dim, who would not have lived to maturity in harsher, more competitive eras, now survive and thrive, and replicate. And vote.
5
The sad truth is that in a free country citizens are free to be ignorant and totally uninvolved in the elective process, and then, every four years, show up and vote for someone based on the hysteria they've seen on TV, their personal prejudices and the misinformation of equally uninformed associates.
What's even sadder is that when a majority of citizens cares about public policy, stays informed, sees through the fakery out there and then votes for the sensible, capable candidate, they can still lose!
I wish everyone was involved, informed and understood their role and responsibility to make government work. But I wish even more that those who are willingly ignorant and misinformed (and the minority!) could not 'carry the day' in elections, as our perverse electoral system allows.
5
Younger people voted overwhelmingly against Trump and see through his lies overwhelmingly. If the criticism of the education system on these grounds carries weight, it should be directed at the education system from a generation ago that produced the voting patterns of those over 55. The education of these older citizens apparently failed most.
While it is true that there probably should be more civics and less standardized testing, blaming today's youth and their teachers is off the mark. The younger generation see through the lies of Fox and Breitbart that a higher percentage their elders bought into.
3
Personally, I believe travel to foreign countries is the missing ingredient.
We are such an isolated country with a large portion of our population never leaving the country their entire lives.
I was totally uninterested in history and civics until I spent a summer abroad in college. It gave me perspective and a hunger for knowledge that has only increased. Most importantly travel made me self aware on both a personal level and as an American.
I know that not everyone can afford to travel, but many who can don't. Imagine how different a well-traveled populace would behave.
5
The point about teaching civics and government is a great one. If we don't educate our children about our government and its history, they will be unable to participate effectively.
But there's a more sinister aspect to how we've became a country of dupes. Republicans do not WANT an effective and equitable education system, because their misinformation intended solely to funnel more wealth to the richest can only function within an ecosystem of ignorance. They have been starving and sabotaging public schools intentionally, not by accident.
The strategy of continually getting middle-class and poor people to vote against their own economic interests, which has been largely working for the GOP since Reagan, would quickly collapse in a country of informed voters.
4
It is amazing what people will believe. I have long said that most people are not critical thinkers. It's basically a form of laziness. People are much more interested in the current pop culture icon than issues that impact their daily lives. One can only hope that after bearing the brunt of some of the poor policy being made young people will rise up and take responsibility for their future by being informed, voting and yes, thinking critically. People could start by not getting their news from social media or random internet sites. I agree with the author of this article in that every high school graduate should pass a basic civics class that requires demonstration of a basic understanding of how our democracy is supposed to work. One way that charlatans and despots gain power is due to the ignorance of the population, and the willingness of the voter to be fooled. One reason Trump gets away with all his lying, is due to the fact many people want to believe what he says. Others may know he lies, but are willing to accept it because they believe they will gain either financially or legislatively. At any rate, what I find incredibly depressing is the willingness of many fellow citizens to accept falsehoods as truth, even when evidence to the contrary is provided. I'm not sure what the antidote for this is.
1
Three cheers for President Bizarro!!!
2
Please read Mr Lincolns campaign speeches about slavery. You might want to rethink the slavery vs states rights causes.
3
Thanks. We only have ourselves to blame. Next time it better be different. YIKES.
1
First of all, the Civil War -was- caused by "state's rights". There were some states that claimed the right to allow some of their citizens to own people as property, solely because of the color of those people's skin. The rest of the states objected to this 'propertization' of human beings, and that's what the war was about... "state's rights" -- to allow ownership of human beings as property. So people who say "state's rights" instead of just admitting it was about slavery, well, they might have a problem acknowledging that the 'own human beings' side lost. Its always nice to have something to blame your own poor fortunes on other than yourself.
Trump is the Chief Idiot, the Commander-in-Chief of the stupidity brigade. The most recent exhibit is his tweets attacking Sen. Franken for Franken's abominable behavior, which Franken has apologized for. When has Trump ever apologized for *anything*?! And, since he brought sexual assault up himself, what about that Access Hollywood tape? "Locker room talk" - not good enough, not good enough at all. We demand more from our prominent political figures, but apparently only when they are Democrats or "liberals". Conservatives, so long as they espouse "Christian" sharia values, are apparently given a pass on the same accusations, the same behaviors that conservatives are pillaging Franken for. Hypocrisy knows no limits for conservatives and "Christians" who back Roy Moore, ignored Trump's own video statements, and attack Franken.
11
OK, I'm willing to say it. The "stupids" are stupid, by definition. And, what they really don't like, is being called stupid. So, it comes down to, who is stupid? I think the Republicans own Bobby Jindal said it best, when he clearly pointed toward his own party has having that honor.
2
"This boy is ignorance, this girl is want. Beware them both, Ebenezer Scrooge, but most of all beware this boy..."
12
Pls don't give that "duh," oh it's so perfectly crystal what caused the civil war jive! I am not a scholar but spent many hours reading views on this. What am I to believe, as the years pass the issue is clearer, as in, we can ignore what people were emoting and thinking at the time and listen to experts tell us what they were emoting and thinking? Blah!
Trump is a turkey. Everybody, as in 90%, knows that. Poor Hillary, people don't like you. Your candidate announcement event oddly conjured Aquino and went sideways from there. Democrats need to define themselves as addressing the needs of the Nation. IT IS NOT THAT COMPLICATED...in fact, given the sad state of the Republicans and their subservience to their wealthy Masters, it is taking candy from a baby.
3
Isn't this the same paper whose editorial board says requiring photo IDs for voting is discriminatory? A little disconnect here. And sad to say the unintelligent and uninformed have the same rights as everyone else - that's democracy.
2
The title is misleading. All of your examples of stupid politicians (e.g., Roy Moore, Donald Trump) are Republicans, and their followers are primarily White. Furthermore, only one party, the Republican, is trying to privatize the educational system, which will result in more stupid Americans. More stupid Americans will vote for people like Donald Trump and the Republican party.
Wash, rinse and repeat!
6
AMEN! Finally someone at the NY Times just said it plain. People who believe Trump, or believe in him, are ignorant. They just are.
20
Just a little correction. We're with a stupid who is a psychopath. Usually that should be an oxymoron but in Trump's case - NOT.
4
That toupee really is a piece of art.
1
We cannot ignore the role of the Big Lie propaganda technique that was perfected by Joseph Goebbles for Trump's model dictator, Adolph Hitler. Joe McCarthy was a master at it, and the Red Scare was indeed right wing Big Lie propaganda on a massive scale. Trump studied under Roy Cohn, Joe McCarthy's right hand man - what goes around comes around.
But even more powerful than Trump in promoting the Big Lie is Fox News, trusted by the Red State voters and dedicated to nothing but right wing propaganda. Trump and the Republican leaders know full well how to use the Big Lie technique and Fox News is their entree into the homes of untold millions. We can call Trumpies stupid, but they live in a closed universe and are fed nothing but lies, 24/7...lies they believe without question.
15
The problem is Fox News and the plethora of related garbage.
14
Before the end of the century, America will be a Putinist fascist regime. And the stolidly stupid American populace will hoot for it.
3
Hey, we deserve this government. We glorify idiots like the Kardashians, and barely pay teachers a living wage. We elected a celebrity idiot who convinces people to pay $35,000 to attend a infomercial called Trump University.
when we demand better representatives, more representative primary processes, and get better than idiot #1 Trump or idiot #2 Clinton. Does anyone really believe Americans will prioritize knowledge, like civics or history, over some stupid, superficial trivia they can trade over the lunch table?
7
The GOP love to turn issues back to the states because its a perfect example of divide and conquer
7
Right but hasn't the media contributed to this problem when every controversy is juxtaposed with an unbalanced alternative? I believe when the mainstream media begins to once again present an argument without having to balance it out with alternative facts, we may begin to find our mornings again. For example, climate change continues to be presented as in doubt and to prove it, they have their corporate paid shill scientist to prove. how much in doubt it actually is. Or read the NY times Op-eds who write from the right, they can never offer criticisms of the right without an unbalanced criticism of the democrats. There's always an effort for a false equivalence to either seem fair or to attenuate the criticism.
9
"There’s hope — and there are many ways — to shed light on the cave of American democracy."
Interesting, as the etymology of the word Troglodyte is "late 15th century: via Latin from Greek trōglodutēs, alteration of the name of an Ethiopian people, influenced by trōglē ‘hole.’" (Oxford American Dictionary) That is, people who lived in holes or caves.
What will destroy America, and perhaps the world, is ignorance and stupidity. I suppose that if any democracy survives long enough, cretins will elect cretins.
Education is needed badly. But it is also politically contentious, with many people wanting ignorance and stupidity taught, because they benefit from it. We have to try. Or we've had it, and might take a good bit of the world with us.
2
How did "the Russians" trick Hillary into not campaigning in Michigan and Wisconsin?
Mind control?
4
So anyone who votes unlike you is either stupid or racist. Imagine saying that of the impoverished black voters who voted for Clinton. It's despicable, your contempt for the lower and middle classes.
You really believe that the only reason anyone could *possibly* vote against a) a highly corrupt oligarchic entrenched insider or b) a communist, is through stupidity. And then you wonder why you're regarded as out of touch elites. Of course, *you* can't possibly succumb to false info, nor peddle it. Good God.
Btw, first, Trump's style is obvious hyperbole & humor--for you to refuse to see that is either a wilful blindness, hypocrisy, or stupidity (what's sauce for the goose... )Secondly, what you still do not grasp is the extent to which Americans feel unrepresented by the powerful insiders in our media/political/corporate establishment. Trump to us is like a bombastic but combatitive lawyer. We're voting for him precisely because he might actually represent at least some of our interests - at least one - b/c he promised to take on the establishment, eg the illegal immigrant fiaso, the free trade fiasco etc.
You may disagree with me on the issues--fine. You may say, "He didn't do x or y like he promised." Fine. But to call me (and other Trump voters) stupid & racist is lazy & hugely insulting, & only indicates the poverty of your own thoughts & the lack of actual sound policy. All you have is hate & fear & contempt. That won't win votes.
1
And 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' just got renewed for five (5) more years.
1
Bush's No Child Left Behind worked even better than anticipated in creating the mindless worker drone--and empty political vessel--that is the prototypical Trump voter.
3
Education should grow the whole person, the mind, and the soul. For most people, it is just a tool to get a better paycheck.
4
Today someone pointed out that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a taxpayer-paid public servant -- and yet she stands at the White House podium and lies and lies and lies day after day after day. And with a straight face.
8
While some readers are writing about what they did or did not learn in high school civics class, many people still act like this is a high school popularity contest a year after the election.
How did the author determine Pres. Trump lies 5 times per day? Is his evidence filed away with Russian interference with the elections?
I imagine these anti Trump editorials will continue long after Pres. Trump is out of office and possibly when he has left us.
1
It is shocking just how ignorant our society has become.
2
"One reason that public schools were established across the land was to produce an informed citizenry"
And we now have Betsy DeVos working to dismantle them.
6
This piece harkens back to Mike Judge’s excellent documentary “Idiocracy” from 2006. “Water? Like out of the toilet?”
4
Oh, dear. Reinforces my deserve to pull up stakes and relocate to a northern European country.
3
In the Hudson Valley there are two Republican elected officials Senator Terrence Murphy and Assembly Member Kevin Bryne who refuse to use Trumps name, refuse to speak to constituents about their continued to support. Constituents call, write and email these two "silent majority" supporters and you get no response why they continue to be supporters of a truly dishonest human being who really has no understanding of public service. New York Times please do a story on these two Republican elected officials since we can't get answers from their offices.
1
True, true, all true. A courageous and insightful essay. Thank you, Timothy Egan. But can we truly do anything about this slide into a political abyss? We can thank Donald Trump for provoking us to consider the state of our State, but it may be too late to save it. Back to Charles Shultz's paradigm: "We've found the enemy and it's us."
8
It was Walt Kelly in Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
1
It’s all as Chomsky’s propaganda model predicts. The “masters of mankind” (Adam Smith) don’t like democracy and never have, so they have created a system that selects for people that are unable to think for themselves, who won’t cross certain lines and will ultimately do what they’re expected to do for that elite class. The genius of it (if you can call it that) is that the oppressed beg for their own oppression. The free beg to be imprisoned. That’s what happened in November. It’s also important to realize that this system has its weak spots and there is always hope for genuine change. Sanders was a moderate, slightly left of center social democrat, but he at least represented a truly democratic choice that would have upset the balance somewhat. There’s more to do.
8
Great points overall, and I agree we have become an “Idiocracy.” But I do cringe a bit when such an otherwise excellent critique includes grammatical errors. Trust me, they’re there...
2
I'm quite sure the majority of us are NOT with Stupid. Only those who believe in and support the frauds being perpetrated by Republicans and the alt-Christian base are all with trump and moore and ryan and mcconnell. The majority are not fooled by the Russians, limbaugh, jones, hannity, murdoch or the Republicans or the rest of those profiteers of division and fraudulence. The deplorables are being played.
Interesting how the Christian right condemns science and facts as there's no such thing as knowable truth yet believe in something invented by mankind thousands of years ago that IS proven as unknowable. Indeed, they hate the educated and love religion because it can't be questioned and has no burden of proof.
Unfortunately the "educated" coming out of Wharton and Harvard have perverse moral beliefs in greed at all cost regardless of the damage they cause and push against the inconvenience of science and facts too - they're educated to know better.
The worst people of all are the willfully ignorant who in spite of knowing the truth still work against it - maliciously, viciously - to get their way.
Power sharing thing? Republicans act as dictators, even while winning less than a majority vote. They do not compromise for the benefit of all.
Now the liar in chief is lying to his gullible base that killing elephants as a way to save elephants to allow his sons to bring home carcasses to hang on their walls.
Kelly isn't clueless - his distortion of history is intentional.
14
Americans are addicted to guns, opioids, and nonsense.
12
Imagine suggesting voting restriction to people who have paid at least a dollar in tax for the last 5 years. Of course it makes perfect sense that people who pay for the budget be the ones to call shots how monies get distributed. The left would collectively explode about how we are taking the country back a hundred years. But Mr. Egan has no trouble suggesting limiting citizenship from people who can't answer questions about politics (which questions and who get to frame them is left to the readers imagination). The reason we the people elect "constitutional scholars" like Obama and pay for their extravagant life styles is to keep a lid on world politics for us. Like keeping Russia off Ukraine, not letting them "hijack" our elections and small things like that. Can I call Obama stupid for failing to do those things? Can I blame Mr. Egan and his ilk (in this case myself included) for putting Obama there? Should we make sure to teach this in schools so a person like Obama never gets elected President again?
The incredible stupidity of the so called elites in this country is getting to a boiling point. We the people decided to vote for Donald Trump because we felt that this great country was in the wrong path. And the current President hasn't given us a reason yet to doubt his sincerity. So, step back, let him do what he was elected to do and if you feel he hasn't lived up to his promises, by all means try to vote him out come November 2019.
2
Shouldn't Roy be disbarred for violating the constitution? Why hasn't he?
8
Trump is simply the outcome of a long, torturous decline of public discourse, anti-intellectualism, and the ascendance of corporate capital. Too many economic interests depend on an unthinking electorate that responds mostly to consumerist stimuli. At least we Trump's buffoonery and maliciousness are ready apparent.
Is this new? No (H.L. Mencken said nearly a century ago that 'nobody every went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public'). Is this mass classical conditioning on steroids? Would the commercial press give up their ratings spikes to point out the emperor is nekked as a jaybird? Meh ...
4
The real question is why is Trump being scrutinized by you clowns like no president before? Obama supporters have criticized the declaration of independence when it was read. Fact checkers often tend to be biased and untruthful. Similar claims by Bernie Sanders and Trump were rated mostly true and mostly false respectively. Obama lied hundreds of times. As did Bush, and Clinton, and many before all of them. Who broke down this democracy? Who put so much power in the executive branch? Who got civics courses out of schools? It wasnt Trump supporters or Republicans. If you made Americans take a citizenship test, that would be seen as racist if more blacks failed it than whites. Why should Trump have to read the constitution when no president in the past 160 years or more appears to have done so? Obama demonstrably violated it on a regular basis. Press freedom dropped sharply on his watch. And speaking of demonstrably false, it is so easy to refute the "slavery was the only cause" myth that it shouldnt even have to be done. Just look at Lincolns own speeches, actions, and writings.
2
And Betsy DeVos intends to keep it this way!
5
America’s rejection of hard facts for pleasant fictions stems not just from the dumbing down of our our schools, but from the insidious grip of religions rooted in fantasies of an an afterlife, a supreme being, and meaningful existence. [171117.21:35]
5
"I don’t blame Moore. I blame his followers, and the press, which doesn’t seem to know that the First Amendment specifically aims to keep government from siding with one religion — the so-called establishment clause."
Your statement is too general. First things first, Moore is certainly to blame for his religious pronouncements, because they are his pronouncements. His followers are also to blame, because they are following a person who wants to add religious litmus tests to our laws. The "Press" covers a lot of ground to take the blame in this. I assume you mean some of the Alabama or right-wing press. If that is the case, then be more specific when casting your stones. If not, it means you are lumping all the press into the same basket as InfoWars and Breitbart. For me, I like to keep the enemy clearly in sight and not make silly blanket statements. Your suggestion of a citizenship test before voting could dis-enfranchise a lot of people, it would be unjust and I would not try it. Citizenship and civics taught again in our schools is a great idea I can agree with. The one thing I think keeps getting lost is that a lot of people voted for Donald J Chaos & Co. not because they are racist, or homophobes, etc. They were looking for economic change that they did not get with Obama. As for people who are actually pleased with Trump so far, May Great God almighty help them all!
4
Yep, totally agree, it's the lack of education. Stupid is, as Ignorance does. And don't forget that we have Betsy DeVos applying her well-proven theories of academic failure to an already struggling public school system. Welcome to the Dark Ages of the 21st Century.
8
This article and its headline are precisely why Trump won. The liberal elites think the electorate is so dumb and "deplorable" that they couldn't possibly know the difference between fake news and the truth. Also, the labeling of "non-educated white males" in the news mobilized this group who may not know every jot and tittle of policy, but they knew where they could vote.
1
"I could stand on a dias with a montage of American icons behind me, looking stupid and pointing to my head and saying, "No matter how many stupid lies I tell, how many times I treat our country's heritage as a useless rag, no matter how much discord* I sow, my people are gonna love me."
Yup, you are known by the company you keep.
* we tried to keep difficult words to a minimum, couldn't help it here.
1
Many Trump supporters are not as naive as Mr Egan suggests. They know he lies. They know he has a less than honorable past. Trump identified hot button issued that both major parties were ignoring, or pussy footing largely because of the lobbyists and donors. China HAS been taking advantage of us. An endless supply of cheap labor HAS depressed wages.
Still, I will never support him because of what he has done to truth and the honor of the office he now holds, and the laughing stock he has made us around the world.
6
“We have a White House of lies because a huge percentage of the population can’t tell fact from fiction.”
We have a White House of lies because of the cynical, self-serving toadies of the super-wealthy — the Republican Party — who have enabled Donald Trump.
11
Yes, I was wondering when someone would come out and say it. As an old dear departed friend used to say about certain regions of this country, "it's not the humidity, it's the stupidity.
Indeed the willfully stupid have become a cultural & political force in this country and, that is not a good thing. And yes the so called conservatives think that it is a movement that they can use to usher in another gilded age, but as they have learned in the past year, sometimes the dumbness gets out of control and well, I wonder how they would feel about having 52 Roy Moores in the Senate and Yosemite Sam on the Supreme Court? Tarnation!!!
5
You are so right. The fault lies at home and no where else.
1
"People would have to pass a simple test on American values, history and geography before they were allowed to have a say in the system."
Isn't this basically a literacy test, and wasn't this kind of thing considered unconstitutional? Perhaps the author believes we should re-introduce poll taxes too?
1
Before the dot.com bubble burst and 9-11, many in Silicon Valley believed government was obsolete. I am starting to believe that obsolescence is really coming. Perhaps there will come a day when we can individually choose to some degree the level of taxes we want to pay based on how many government services we want to receive, from which government. Perhaps the day will come when we live so digitally that physical geography becomes irrelevant and we can choose, say, to opt out of a world with 45 and his followers in it
“False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing” - Joseph De Maistre
The danger of ignorant voters is indeed very serious, but there is nothing new about it. Poorly-informed voters have been always been susceptible to demagoguery, propaganda, and the like. Historically, this unfortunate group was split more evenly between the left and the right, effectively "cancelling out" one another. But in 2017, this uninformed group skews heavily conservative. Education level is now one of the strongest indicators of one's political affiliation. How did this shift occur?
6
A democratic election is a test of the knowledge and wisdom of the electorate. Unfortunately, our test result is sitting in the Oval Office.
3
As one who hates putin and his supporters and hates trump (yep, since the 80's), i have no hope for any of them to change. I also have no realistic hope for the majority of people in this country to actually rise up and remove the thieves from power. the politcal parties are either in corrupt collusion with trump or too befuddled to obstruct effectively; the military and security organs are loyal to trump and his interests first and will not take the necessary action. it may take a mass insurrection to give this nation any chance but i suspect it will just be a rapid decline into further kleptocracy and
ignocracy. the country is over.
6
We have met the enemy and it is us. We get the government we deserve and if we tumble into a theocracy-oligarchy -dictatorship light it is the fault of the uninformed electorate. Reality TV where Trump sprung from is the circus to keep the masses occupied with fluff as the GOP power brokers are busy creating an oligarchy and propping up a dictatorship -theocracy. Unless the general population wakes up the earth will be 6000 years old, Trump's photo will be on every corner poster and the bible will trump the constitution.
5
The American electoral system has fowled the democratic ideal. The will of the people is not reflected in our "choice" of leaders. Big capital -in the billion of dollars- is necessary to manipulate the electorate. The problem is our system is corrupt and debased. In the past, it wasn't possible to move the electorate like it is now -with a flurry of lies and deceptions- instantly spread all over, but the new reality is that what happened last election is the new norm. However, our system is ancient and static; it cannot evolve. I think the American ideal of democracy is in the process of dying unless we evolve our system to face the new realities...
4
What is puzzling to me is that many of my intelligent friends still see this clown, his actions and his appointees as being 'okay.' I constantly question myself and try to see how the other side sees this administration as being effective. I just can't do it, it's a total mystery.
9
It is critical to developing a literate and critically-thinking citizenry that public schools be funded equally and held to common academic standards.
Also, living in digital spaces does not mean that people must close themselves off. Access to free information is more available than ever--you need only google Immigrant Citizen Test to have access to see that good information is available to educate yourself at whatever age and wherever you are. Public libraries provide free internet access.
It is a question of choices that people make about what to put into their heads. I recently ran across the acronym TLDR--too long, didn't read. It may be that people are not in the habit, anymore, of reading long form or detailed analyses of issues. If you cannot read critically, you cannot think critically.
The most important education that children aren't getting happens between birth and age 5. Poor parenting, poor nutrition, drug abusing parents all affect a child's IQ and/desire to learn. Schools and teachers bend over bachwards to educate students. Unfortunately, there are some things schools can't fix. Perhaps having a license to parent would change things. And of course, the removal of FOX news would help too.
1
How and why have liberal progressives embraced the "Russian Interference" meme so quickly, without recognizing the implications? IOW, their own premises.
We are supposed to be an open society. The principle of the First Amendment is that anyone can and must be allowed to say anything. We can deal with the consequences. The idea that "information", arguments, theories must be controlled from top down by wise "Authorities" is properly anathema.
Is this now invalid because the speaker is a "foreigner"? A "foreign power" that is has "hostile intentions"? This is an idea fit for a North Korea. It's nonsense, but nonsense is OK for the purpose of dogpiling on Trump. ?
1
Really? You think we should all be okay with a foreign power trying to influence our elections because of the First Amendment? Pretty sure the Russian government isn't covered by the First Amendment. Of course the First Amendment is invalid in this case. And, yes, Russia is a foreign power with hostile intentions. To think otherwise is to forget our history. We cannot accept Russian interference in American democracy under any circumstances.
I have a novel idea, don’t use social media. It’s pretty simple.
5
Unfortunately, this is all true. What a shame-a truly exceptional country we have become.
Our leaders reflect their followers, not the other way around. It's easy to get wrapped up about the antics of our leaders, but they were all elected by people. It isn't Trump and Moore that scare me; it's the fact that many people think these guys are great leaders that scares me.
1
Aristotle once said, "All communication is persuasion," and today we sure have a lot of communication. Let's not forget advertising. How many of those claims are not at least misleading? How many of those do we deal with each day?
Figuring out the truth has been tough for some time. And once you leave the mainstream, it's even tougher. Once, during the Vietnam war, several hundred of us demonstrated against a newspaper in Honolulu because we didn't like their coverage of the war. The newspaper's response? They didn't cover the demonstration.
A lot of Trump voters are outside the mainstream. They might believe that the government is run by elites, and that the government maintains its power by propaganda when possible and repression when it is not. That view is also popular among outsiders on the other side of the mirror, Marxists.
Outsiders can think critically about the mainstream but be fooled in other ways. Again, back in Vietnam, protest movements were infiltrated by agents provocateurs, some supported by the FBI (cf. Cointelpro). Now we have electronic agents provocateurs.
The horses are out of the barn, but don't blame the teachers. Not after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Watergate and Iran-Contra. Mainstream credibility has been fading for some time, and trying to fact-check the firehose of lies is too slow.
Blaming all of us is blaming none of us. We have to keep fighting the lies we can identify and blame the liars. And it's not easy.
As a child I feared I would not be smart enough to negotiate the adult world, I assumed adults were much smarter than I thought of myself. I now realize the bar is so low it's subterranean.
4
Stop blaming the teachers. You the press are more the problem. You cover sports ad nauseam but no national media ever shows up at National Science Bowl to cover the best and brightest. Probably the same for academic history competitions. Far more of my students think they will play pro sports than have any interest in history and science. You covered global warming-climate change so badly it looked like a debate between equal numbers of scientists on opposing sides. Many media outlets have been bought out by conservative interests - spawning the first Fake News. Local media often trashes teachers - driving away many top graduates who see better pastures elsewhere. Look in a mirror.
6
The present situation arises from too much information. Far too much to keep up with on a daily basis, and much of that information is bunk. So we selectively pick and choose the information we want to consume, and that comes with confirmation bias. The same goes with fake news, which is a result of the universal ability for anyone to publish on a global platform, something that was not possible a few years ago. So now we have information overload beyond what any previous form of democracy had to contend with, and it gives us Trump, who is winning the information war in terms of persuasion by pandering to his audience and their desires, however irrational and evil.
We used to have literacy tests. A civic exam sounds like a step up from that.
Please stop blaming public education for the lack of discernment so prevalent in our society. The President and many of those who advise him are products of elite private secondary schools and universities, yet they perpetuate fake news and promote its media sources. Furthermore, public education has become politicized by purveyors of the myth that it is inferior to private schools and "choice" schools, yet it is these selective schools that are able to select their biases, as well as their students, resulting in an education that is only an echo chamber. Teaching critical thinking is at the core of public school curriculum, but schools cannot overcome cultural ignorance and biased thinking when they are constantly blamed for all the failings of society.
5
Perhaps the premise of the article is wrong. What if those people cited DO understand the Constitution and just don’t like it? What if they want to minimize or eliminate the separation of church (not synagogue or mosque) and State? What if they want a more controlled press with less restrictive libel laws? Maybe the reason many Trump supporters were offended by sections of the Declaration of Independence was because they do not agree with the founding principals of our country. Now that is a very, scary thought.
2
I will print, frame and hang this commentary on the wall of my office. I have felt for years now that the US electorate was simply too uninformed for its own good. Few of the Trump base truly understand what made America great in the first place. The secret ingredient has been and always will be a quality education and the will to out compete others with our brains not our backs. Of course, Trump is simply the latest in a long line of Republicans who fail to understand this simply truism. It takes but cursory glance at history to see that no nation has remained on top with guns and walls.
1
Ah, but even a quality education cannot erase the brainwashing that parents do at home from birth. And when some teachers do break through the cracks of parental influence, those teachers can get in big trouble with the parents and then school district for being "political."
1
At what point does stupidity cross over to simple unadulterated evil? Supporters of Roy Moore and Donald Trump are not simply stupid. Look at the majority of Republicans who support Trump, deny climate change, allow themselves to be bought by big time thieves while working Americans have to pay the bills and attend the funerals as the inevitable tragedies of bad governance overwhelm our country. Whether it concerns ill conceived war, fire, flood, economic collapse, gun proliferation, pharmaceuticals, opioids, loss of health care, education costs or bankruptcy, stupid policy decisions have continued to cripple the middle class while gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisment, campaign finance, and Fox propoganda are crippling the rule of democracy.
Greed and ruthlessness work these changes. Hatred and bigotry fall right behind them. The pendulum has swung far enough to the right. Decency and Democracy must return to the center of political life if we are to survive.
3
I signed up just so I could comment on this piece. It is * spot on*. For a democracy to work the people a) have to care, and b) have to educate themselves on the candidates and issues. If someone cannot even name the three branches of government what hope do we have that they can vote thoughtfully and responsibly? None... and if the citizens cannot be bothered then the democracy is headed for disaster (or some might say we are already there)
3
Mr. Egan is right. We have too many ignorant citizens. He zeros in on one big reason-the lack of civics training in our schools. My Father was a school principal who believed that learning how to be a citizen was an important part of a student's education. The sad thing is that we, the people, know this failing. Remember the Jay leno "Man in The Street" pieces?
I believe it has a much to do with the incentive systems in our country than anything else.
I teach economics at a state university and most of my students are apolitical and for good reason: strident political views - left or right- can only hurt and almost never help in the employment market.
Indeed, and ever increasing proportion of college students are of foreign descent and woefully ignorant of US history - i.e. Viet Nam War, the Cold War, Great Depression, Civil War, etc. - and no one other than well informed Americans who believe such issues are important seem to care.
Parenthetically, political and social apathy is just one of the many hidden costs of globalization. Many young people really don't believe in national allegiance or identity any more and for good reason. We live in an international community where money can pretty much buy anything - including political freedom.
1
While I generally agree with this piece, I think it goes deeper than just a lack of factual knowledge about our country's history and institutions. While possession of that knowledge is probably necessary, it isn't sufficient for being a responsible citizen. Facts alone won't vaccinate one against fake news, because we can't know the facts of every situation. What we need is an education system that doesn't treat critical thinking as a skill that is only required for those that go into a few specific, "science-y" fields. Being able to skeptically interrogate and analyze the world in which we live is a critical skill for all people who wish to engage with that world, including government and politics.
1
True, and many of the same people who have those skills allow them to fly out the window when it comes to politics because they treat politics like a sporting event, defending their team at all costs.
I think many people believe what fits for them. I worry I also suffer from this. I want to believe Hillary is innocent of all wrong doing. And I worry I read the news of her through those glasses. I know I cannot stand Trump and I believe everything bad written of him. Am I also part of the problem ? I probably am. I think this is the crux of the problem for all of us. And not sure how we improve upon it.
The stereotypes of Alabama, and the rest of the deep south, just won't go away. People who revere Confederate officers, believe their Bible trumps everything, long for the days when women knew their place and minorities weren't be too uppity.
The stereotypes are too true for too many. And worse than that, when the outside world pokes at them, they cling even harder to their replica of 1952 Alabama.
I know there have to be a bunch of modern, moderate types who hate how their state is perceived. But there just aren't enough of them.
I imagine when it's time to talk school curriculum, there is resistance to civics courses, much less science and history.
I think much of this problem is not confined to the South, but that's where much of Trump's base is. And Trump himself is not familiar with what is widely considered common knowledge. I doubt he could pass any 8th grade quiz on the Constitution. (or history or science)
2
I'll just point out that the majority of us were never with Stupid. He received 3 million fewer votes than the Democratic candidate and if the next election took place tomorrow it would not be nearly that close. A big majority of us are not with Stupid.
4
It's not that a huge percentage of the populations can't tell fact from fiction. It's that they DON'T CARE about facts. The fiction is perfectly fine with them, as long as it fits their beliefs.
5
During a Carter/Reagan debate, Ronnie paused after a particularly well-made point by Jimmy, scratched his head and said something to the effect of, "Well, I didn't go to any fancy college..." Won election by 10 million votes.
Somewhere in there the Republicans figured out how to equate ignorance with patriotism, education with elitism. They've been making it stick ever since. Education can only do so much; values are generally handed down from parents to kids, I believe. Some break free of that, but...plus, we now have the internet to contend with.
Adult education, civics tests for voters - these are good ideas mentioned here.
5
Quite an uphill battle to teach fact from fake, Mr Egan, when more people believe the civil war was about state's rights than slavery.
Long ago, across the nation, one test answer was always "State's rights". It just depended where you lived as to the phrasing of the question. In the northern states, "The South proclaimed that its reason for Secession was ..."
That was my memory. And also 4 decades ago, a new friend from Texas quizzed me "What was the cause of the civil war?" When I said "Slavery", he went ballistic. So, I can only conclude that the teachers in the South had ZERO test questions with "Slavery" as the correct answer.
Here's my suggestion, Mr Egan, teach students that salesmen give incomplete information, provide biased conclusions, and often just straight-out lie. Tell them that almost every profession or person you meet, can have something to sell, thus they can act like a saleman. Students should be taught every trick of the salesman; how to politely, but firmly, disconnect from their pitch; how to research a total answer; and finally to know when, where, and how to rebut falsehoods.
Being astute for the inevitable flim flam - that will seperate fact from fake.
1
I need to disagree with the primary point while agreeing with the rest.
It is incorrect, although common, to believe that our democracy is in peril due to its uninformed citizenry. That's not the problem.
It is not sufficient to be informed, although obviously important. And that can be fixed, not by educating people, but by getting rid of the fake news pollution. Fake news is easier and more satisfying to "wanna believe" so you can passionately parrot it to your friends and make yourself look smart because you are twice-born when it comes to knowing how things really work. Fake news makes you an evangelist; a believer, fan, supporter, and ally.
Without fake news there's no addiction to crack news.
But that's not the real solution because the real problem is inherent to democracy.
The problem is that your vote does not count. One vote in millions is nothing.
So people vote emotionally, to make a point, to stick it to them. Every vote is a protest vote.
The Republicans know this and take advantage of it by feeding hate and doubt and fear, so they get all the protest votes. Whereas Democrats are still clueless and think people vote for rational good policies in their self-interest. They campaign as if the citizens are educated and passion-free without a limbic brain ready to react.
No one will vote for corporation funded oldsters holding a sign that says: "A Better Deal". But Trump has provided the winning formula that Will get out the vote: Hate the hate.
2
We need 1) high school education in civics and democracy and 2) education in the science of human nature. Our Nation's Founding Fathers sought to protect our democracy from citizens' human nature, especially tribalism (e.g., Church tribes). Americans need to recognize the need to fairly examine different points of view and argument, to recognize "confirmation bias," to recognize that Fox News is more propaganda machine than news reporting, and to demand a sound secular education of our children (even those attending "religious" schools). Otherwise, we may descend into tribalism, and face the demise of rational democracy.
4
Hallelujah! Well said. Unfortunately, easier said than fixed . The question is : do Americans really want to face the truth ?
Television could have been the great educator of the masses, but it has gradually turned into an weapon of mass idiocy over the past 60 years.
I don't mean that we need to have 24-hours of science documentaries (real ones, not sensational conjectures about UFOs) and Shakespeare, but I can think of a few major public disservices that commercial television has performed within my lifetime.
1. When PBS was formed, the commercial networks stopped featuring science or the arts, thereby creating a "ghetto" for this type of programming on one network, one that viewers could actually avoid and run no risk of accidental exposure to something fascinating or beautiful
2. People on TV programs, whether comedies or dramas, are rarely shown reading or discussing serious subjects. The actors look like catalogue models and talk in banalities.
3. Starting around 2005, all the basic cable channels except Turner Classic Movies and the Weather Channel and including A&E, Discovery, TLC, Bravo, BBC America, and History suddenly turned from intelligent programming to "reality" show idiocy, glorifying empty-headed "celebrities." There was no groundswell of demand for this change--current viewers protested on the stations' websites, upon which the websites stopped accepting comments.
4. Need I mention the cults of Fox News and AM radio?
5. The ESPN franchise and the whole notion that sports are earthshakingly important
We've been dumbed down. How do we smarten people back up?
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Donald Trump is America’s first openly Relativist President.
While Relativism has been with us since the beginning of cognition, and previous occupants of the White House have shown a remarkable capacity to conger up fantastical notions of the truth, never before has there been a POTUS who so regularly proclaims that what most of us accept as empirical reality is non-existent, and that only his personal Imperial narrative of reality is the valid one.
To add insult to injury, President Trump actually makes the highly suspicious assertion that it is his unique genius that gives him an advantage over everyone else in determining what is real for everyone else.
Relativism may be an inescapable consequence of our cognitive mechanisms. But one of the more challenging aspects of Relativism is that it makes the world we live in a grifter’s paradise. Ergo the Trump presidency. And another is that it makes it more difficult to distinguish reality from cognitive pathology. Well…ergo the Trump presidency.
In our collective mad dash for tokens of our individual significance we have given up on taking ownership of a collective social contract. We have met the enemy, and it is us.
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What could possibly go wrong when people believe the president holds all the power? They seem to not care that it is the House and Senate that starts and ultimately approves our laws.
When you have millions of people hanging on every single word, icon, or emoji posted on social media as if they were a matter of life or death, what could possibly go wrong? Nobody would ever surround themselves with people with exactly the same views. Nobody would ever post fake news or spread fake news.
Our country is falling apart at the seam with the masses (m is silent) living off in their own private fantasy land. The only speech allowed is the speech that everyone likes. I am really glad my Grandparents did not live to see this. This is not the America that they fought so hard to get to.
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"At least five times a day, on average, this president says something that isn’t true."
I'd say that Trump is intellectually dishonest, but he is anti-intellectual in general. Trump is about himself: manipulating and using other people to get adoration, money and power.
Likewise with Moore, who believes that his vision of God is the only right one. I was forced to pray the prayer of a religion that is not mine through school in the South. I'll be darned if I will let this man tell me what is correct. Regardless of the sexual allegations against him, Moore proved his unfitness for the Senate by being removed twice from the bench. He does not respect the law nor our system of justice. That makes him unfit.
I have learned that Trumpists will not listen and cannot learn. They are like Trump in that only his way is okay. I pray they don't lead us right into disaster.
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I read many of the comments given on this opinion column (and many columns.) I know some of the more frequent contributors and I have a great respect for their thoughtful, intelligent responses. I can only really comment on my own experience:
My sons are accomplished men with degrees that help them contribute to their respective disciplines. When I was a young mother with a partner, what did we seek out....a good school system in our state. That was the sole factor. It served my children and I was always about learning and school participation. We were active members in an Episcopal church. I had a spouse that made an income that permitted me to stay at home. I was not only an on-task mother, I was able to volunteer and be very active with the pursuits my sons took upon themselves. We believed in learning and doing good for others.
So much ignorance and disregard for knowledge is related to values and income. Many parents don't truly understand what it takes to be a parent...and it often bleeds into the affluent; not just a poor folk problem. Parenting is HARD WORK. Additionally, I do not believe that most Americans are willing to work for their learning nor are they willing to work hard for most anything.
You can be a pupil of any school system in this country. The real learning is in your home, in your heart, and not what is currently cool...knowledge takes work and effort.
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"....we have allowed the educational system to become negligent in teaching the owner’s manual of citizenship." Citizenship today is a foreign concept in this country. Civics and government get short shrift in high school, though some school systems mandate "community service" in order to graduate. Think about it: Requiring a youngster to volunteer his/her time in service to others. Worse, less than 1 percent of Americans now serve in the nation's armed forces. For this child of the '60s, when the draft was de rigeur, I knew then we could come to this day. To reverse further deterioration of the true spirit of America, the time has come for Congress to decree mandatory national service -- be it the military, or a reconstituted Civilian Conservation Corps/Works Progress Administration...see, all that is part of our history of service during hard times. But wait, they don't teach American history too much these days, either, do they?
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Yes, they do teach American history! I'm not sure where people are getting their information from regarding the lack of education in schools...But yeah, it's easier to blame the schools for a very complex, multifaceted problem, so let's just do that.
There is an awful lot of supposing that Trump/Republican supporters are ignorant, naive, and being taken for a ride. Those people do exist; however, from what I can see and read, the majority of them know exactly what is going on, they just don't care because it's their guys acting like bullies. To them the ends justify the means when they want something, and they generally get what they want because Republicans have no shame anymore and they know Democrats won't behave the same way.
I don't even know what the answer is anymore, but I do know that Democrats need to get their acts together--and quick--for the upcoming elections.
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Small wonder that the Republicans time and again do their best to undermine education, specifically higher education. Reason: An informed, educated electorate has the ability to critically analyze, critique, and challenge their lies and propaganda. An ignorant electorate has put them in power, so why would they ever want to advance learning in our nation?
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Yay! For months my comments have emphasized the idea that personal responsibility in reviewing news is fundamental to the proper functioning of a Republic or a Democracy. Every single citizen MUST collect an array of real facts that simply cannot be assimilated by being duped by the news on Facebook or any other single source of information.
Our vacuous minded population buys into the most ridiculous premises. For example: it is utterly ridiculous to believe that just because a candidate is Republican or Democratic that what he says is true or false. Yet that is what I read in my local newspaper this last weekend. I was told that I could tell the new tax bill was good for the country because the Democrats were against it. We have sunk into the very depths of anti-intellectual thought or non-thought.
We cannot burrow out of it by pointing fingers at Facebook for allowing fake news. Fake news predated Facebook by 5000 years. The first snake oil salesman was the snake in the Garden of Eden. If people want to believe a few sound bites from a sincere sounding political candidate because it feels good or sounds like what you want to hear, then we will all pay a horrendous price.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." We can and must do better.
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"We" are not responsible for this. Period. As a university adjunct I have taught my students to recognize "fake news" for a decade. We read court cases and analyse them. What we do not ever do is accept the claims put forth by media pundits as legit, without subjecting those claims to good, old fashioned analysis. There are a lot of us who haven't given up...but our numbers are dwindling. If Americans don't want to live in a democratic society informed by classic values of respect- for knowledge, for the rule of law, and for each other, we won't. It's that simple. What scares me is that we are losing the fight for decency, for common sense, for the very idea of the commons, itself. Sad!
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23 years ago, I took my son out of a low-performing public school after first grade, and homeschooled him until high school. On every Election Day, he went with me to vote. He learned critical thinking as part of our curriculum. He read history books, we traveled to historic sites, he learned about the arc of human endeavor, locally and nationally. He went on to study history and sociology at an ivy-league college. He is a thoughtful, engaged citizen. It was not hard to create that reality, but public schools ARE the root of the problem, and they must be held accountable. What we are seeing in the decline of our democracy I do believe is a direct result of laziness, uncaring, and teaching to the lowest-common-denominator in public education.
Richard Thaler received the 2017 Noble prize in economics for his career demonstrating that people behave consistently irrationally, at least in ways that economists consider. This contradicts more classic economics, which assumed people, at least in groups, act more rationally. Thaler and his colleagues now provide a more realistic (and perhaps disturbing) view of humanity.
So who will get a Nobel, or something similar, for questioning the behavior of people in the context of politics, especially in a democracy? As Egan suggests, too many Americans are unprepared, both in terms of knowledge and thinking, to contribute in a "rational" way. And although he seems to hint at a deficit of prepared voters on the right, I suggest the problem is more universal.
Bottom line: if voters are so easily misled and manipulated, then our democracy is a farce.
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Excellent analysis of the USA political mess. Democracy is based on the premise that citizens are engaged and educated. Today many voters need to be coddled by political parties and encouraged to vote, while many of these voters are clueless about many political issues.
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While I want to agree with the author of this piece, I feel it is only fair to point out that it is the generation who studied Civics in the 1940s-1960s who went heavily for Trump while the youngest generation who are often woefully ignorant about history and government was the least likely to vote for the man. The problem is less what Americans study in school and more about what they read, listen to, and do after they leave school.
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Couldn't agree more. In general, today's American public is ill-informed about how gov't operates, our history and world history, simple geography, simple economics and current events that may shape the future of our gov't and society. The Founders predicated their experiment of an well-informed public led by virtuous representatives and leaders (virtuous in 18th century meant service without expectation of personal gain). Today we have neither. Of particular concern is our corrupt politicians who are overly influenced by K-street and big money rather than the real concerns of the public. How else can you explain the continued assault on ACA and the ridiculous tax bill being pushed by the GOP.
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Trump is a product of people who are thinking magically instead of realistically considering the situation which they share with many others in our country. They are overwhelmed with the situation and feel helpless, so they imagine that some agent will intervene and rearrange things on their behalf. This agent is Trump and no matter how lame and ineffectual his behavior, while they want to believe that he will make everything right they are going to remain loyal. If they understood the facts and considered them with some reasonable conclusions from them, they would not consider Trump as being able to offer any useful solutions and they would not consider Republicans who only want to cut taxes as sincerely trying to fix their problems, either. But learning how to separate the misrepresentations of facts from the verifiable facts is a time consuming and difficult effort, so people just follow with what they feel comfortable and hope for the best.
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Thank you Mr. Egan. It's about time someone wrote about Americans' lack of civics knowledge. Let's include the lack of scientific and statistical knowledge, too.
That high school students can get academic credit for things like cheerleading is despicable. All the emphasis on testing, but with no essay tests, is despicable. Our students don't read, and they cannot write. That is despicable. But we pass them on to the next grade because summer school costs money and we dare not raise taxes. The population increases but we dare not raise taxes. How dumb is that?
But let's not blame the teachers, since it seems that politicians have taken over curriculum development in recent years, and that's despicable. These precious politicians whose own knowledge of civics and science and math is despicable.
Let's face it: teachers are terribly, terribly underpaid and we don't have enough of them. Grading essay tests takes TIME and MONEY. And they don't have enough say in the system. Charter schools are not the answer. Let's put our efforts back into public schools. Let's do away with this 'on-line' so-called education. (Would you want your brain surgeon to learn their techniques on-line?)
Our founding fathers had it right: democracy demands an educated citizenry.
I am an old woman now, but earned a Ph.D. In mathematics and spent 40 years as a college professor, teaching mathematics to our children. Fortunately, some of them could both read and write.
We're not just stupid, there's an overwhelming level of immaturity accompanying the stupid--worn like a badge of honor. Perpetual juvenile mugging, preening and discourse.We are currently privy to the fact that access to the best primary, secondary and post secondary education- does not cure Stupid. The seeds for learning (and its value) must begin at home; it is a mindset that cannot be underestimated no matter the education level of the parent(s).
Learning to think almost sounds antithetical; but too often today- we bear witness that it is.
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If you examine the core of the problem, voter ignorance and indifference to regarding the right to vote as something sacred in a democracy, it is the Holy Grail. IF you embark on a campaign to educate voters and instill a sense of civic duty to go to the polls, that if you shirk your civic duty you are disrespecting the central part of a democracy, then you would not require an exam. You would already know the voters were educated and informed which would result in better outcomes from getting the government they deserve that looks after their needs rather than the donor class.
In the near term getting registered, getting others registered informing yourself on the issues is a good place to start.
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Even among well-educated, too much STEM and not enough social science breeds the stupidity we are seeing. As the author says, we we need a citizenry well educated in civics, history, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science. These have gotten lost in our educational system and we could suffer for decades from this lapse.
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As a high school social studies teacher, including the state-required Participation in Government class, I ask the writer and all the commenters here to please stop conflating lack of knowledge with lack of teaching. Teaching takes two people with two minds -- the teacher and the learner. I set up a classroom Congress (yes, I'm the President and the principal is the Supreme Court) to teach the Constitution, but I cannot crawl into my students' brains and force their synapses to work and take in the knowledge.
Why don't the students care? Ask their parents. Oh wait, they're too busy working two or more jobs to support their families in decency, or the strain of modern life in America has become too much and the family has broken under its pressure.
You want good citizens? Start with good parents. You want good parents? Then pass laws that really value families, like a decent minimum wage and paid sick, vacation and maternity/paternity time. Despite all our pious talk about family values, our society doesn't really value families. This is a hard place to raise children. And I raised mine as a single parent. I know.
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I don’t think trump would get it even if he took the time to read the constitution.
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Thank you for the great column. The key skills that American public schools are not teaching children are critical sense and the ability to think for themselves rather than regurgitate what they have been told. Start by eliminating multiple choice tests, and make children come up with an answer on their own. This should start in first grade. Beginning in sixth grade and all the way through high school, present them once a week with an opinion piece, and make them debate it, make them analyze the pros and cons and develop their own opinion. The topics can range from the mundane to the deeply philosophical, what matters is to develop the ability to doubt, rather than just be a sheep ready to follow any charlatan over the cliff.
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It seems the last bastion of political correctness is discussing the intelligence of Trump supporters. There are many Republicans and Conservatives and Democrats who recognize that there seems to be a cognitive difference between pro and con Trumpists, and that Trump himself is not up to the job intellectually. I wrote a wise-guy sentence on social media "Trump is the revenge of the stupid" that surprised me at the number of times it was re-tweeted or quoted. It is politically incorrect to say, but I believe there is truth there.
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I'm guessing that Donald Trump is of an age to have taken a civics course or two. I don't think that's the solution to the problem. Besides it would be a states' rights issue to try to implement nationally. But I think it's good to acknowledge that the problem isn't the Russians. You can never repeat Pogo's Dictum too often: We have met the enemy and he is us.
I read this article on the same day that I learned that the Virginia Board of Education removed social studies as a required course in the public schools.
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It's time to ignore Donald Trump and start directly taking on his supporters. They caused him, he didn't cause them. It needs to be pointed out that they are unpatriotic, immoral and threaten the future of our country. They must no longer be permitted the conceit of thinking of themselves as defending our values, our future, our history, our safety or our economy. On the contrary, they are the biggest threat to all of those things. It will take someone who isn't afraid of offending someone, thus leaving out most of the leading Democrats, and can not only eloquently state what the truth is but also persevere in attacking the lies that are repeatedly but out by Trump and his Republican minions.
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Your column is right on the mark, but I'd add this: the destruction of our education system was part of the right's long-term goal. They know educated citizens support a more activist (i.e. "liberal") government because with knowledge comes a realistic vs. fantasy view of how complex things (like society) work. The right peddles a black & white, good vs. bad narrative that specifically is designed to agitate clueless citizens into supporting their atrocious agenda. Everything you lay out is the culmination of this deceit against our nation. Once the public school system is demolished, there is virtually no "public" institution left that all citizens actively and demonstrably benefit from. It's all part of a 50+ year drive to create a nation of (mostly) ignoramuses who can't tell the Constitution from a hole in the ground; it's only through that means that the right can cling to any "base" of power outside the super wealthy and a sliver of white collar workers who believe their nonsense about taxation (or the lack thereof). As a nation we need to re-embrace the components that made our (admittedly imperfect) democracy the envy of the world: well-financed public schools, universities, libraries and other civic institutions, an independent and free press (not a handful of corporate "media" entities), and the value of an informed and engaged citizenry. We're no longer the envy of the world - we're the laughingstock. Only a fool can't see what we've thrown away.
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Lack of knowledge or claiming ignorance is no longer an excuse we as citizens can afford to make. In this time where we have a leader like Donald Trump, who on daily basis makes false or untrue statements that some people of our nation take as truth or fact is undeniably terrifying. If anything, this article is preaching to the American people to educate themselves on our constitutional rights as citizens and to be hyper-aware of the fact that the leader of our nation leans in the direction of violating those constitutional rights far too frequently. The actions demonstrated by our current president are deleterious to the founding principles of our democracy. Technological advances in the last 20 years have made knowledge more readily available to U.S. citizens. Our initiative to utilize this massive knowledge base is paramount in our ability to influence the direction of our county and the quality of life of future generations. We as citizens of this country are obligated to be informed and advocate for our constitutional rights.
What a well-written, informative Op this is. The closing is magnificent. "those initiatives will mean little if people still insist on believing what they want to believe".
To all you posters claiming that the Civil War is a bad example because the war was actually about states' rights, you are making Egan's point. That view has been decisively debunked: it was the myth that the losing side (i.e. the South) successfully pushed in the decades after the war, and it influenced US history for more than a century, but it is not true. The war was fought over slavery, which the South framed as a states' rights issue to make it more palatable.
The fact is, Americans are very happy to remain willfully ignorant. This is not unusual--it's true of all other nations' citizens, too. There is, in this regard at least, nothing at all exceptional about the US. Human beings are generally not all that good at complex critical thinking. And why should we be? We didn't need those skills for the vast history of our existence, and in fact we were better off NOT having them for much of that time. Biology is hard to change.
But we can, and should, do better. The problem is, about a third of the country simply doesn't want to--whether out of ignorance, racism, sexism or sheer stupidity.
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The american public is just about as smart or stupid as the general public in any other country. The difference is that the American public is exposed, voluntarily or not, to an amount and type of sophisticated propaganda on a daily basis, and this what makes them unable to decipher the truth from falsehood, which is the purpose of propaganda to begin with. Let the pretension, posture and the bluster be cast away for a moment, and then speak with any so- called 'less informed' citizen and I discover a more reasoned person than appeared on first glance. An average citizen is wrapped up in the latest he/she has consumed from their favorite source especially if served as the right blend of truth, falsehood, and cooked correctly for taste, that is, made palatable. Even many college-educated and professionals like such tasty 'news and views' that they suffer indigestion as a result not even knowing that they do and its cause. Literature, science, analytical commentary- all have become propaganda to one extent or the other, because everyone, even scientists, these days take their clue from the successful methods of business, that is, advertising of goods and services. That a discourse be objective, meaning it not have any personal gain, even the desire of acceptance, as its goals, is fast disappearing from civic ethos. This is causing, at least in part, otherwise normal people to act and behave stupidly.
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Yes! I am just about over with all the STEM emphasis. Yes, science and math are very important, but even more critical now in this country is the loss of reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and thus "critical thinking" Not only do we not teach our kids basic civics anymore, we don't even teach them/show them how to absorb information, parse words and analyze information. We have devalued public education and schooling in general, and now have a nation of easily led ignoramuses. I think my grandchildren will be able to take over the world because I shall ensure they are educated!
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As a nation, and as a collection of individuals, we've ceased to take responsibility for our actions. It's the fault of the other nation or the other person. We've decided to glorify victim hood and are falling over ourselves to define ourselves as as victims. Yes, it's us, the Russian spy network just only took what was there for the taking.
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Sorry to tell you, that train has left the station. Historical ignorance will not be educated back into existence in a nation where nearly everyone has the attention span of a gnat and where complex ideas such as more than one cause for a Civil War are too much to comprehend. Freedom of speech implies a reasoning public that can recognize a lie, demand truth, and think about what is motivating a speaker. The vast majority of comments on social media indicate that we are pretty much doomed to repeat the history of which so many are ignorant.
Part of the blame is on the media itself. We've been conditioned to believe that pretty faces with sonorous speaking voices are "experts" regardless of their lack of qualification. In doing so, we have ignored the accumulated expertise of people that have spent lifetimes studying issues. We've also created the paradigm that every opinion, no matter how ill-informed, is as valuable as any other.
This has left the door open for media with political agenda to create their own experts. And their own reality.
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We have had an exaggerated trust in the perfection of our political institutions . They are good institutions and our Country is the most advanced and richest country on the face of the earth . But human nature is the same across different continents . We are not that different from other less successful countries . Democracy to work needs an informed and rational citizenship . I hope that some of our fellow citizens will eventually understand that idiocy is not a virtue and realize that voting is a privilege deny millions of people around the earth . They should realize that they should vote for the most qualified candidate even if they don`t like the other candidate . Many who voted for Trump knew he was a fool . I am pretty sure they would not have chosen him as a surgeon to operate on them or as the pilot of the airplane they were going to fly . But they felt he was good enough to be President They were the irresponsible ones . Trump is just an insecure rich kid who will never be an adult .
Unfortunately our culture seems to reward aggressive ignorance.
Glorification of stupidity is something the entertainment industry monetized long ago. Until there’s a sea change in our collective behavior and we value intelligence none of this will change. People pay zero short term consequences for their chosen stupidity and society has no mechanisms to counter that.i kinda want to blame Andy Cohen but I think it goes back further than him..
Many Americans share a hunger for easy answers that confirms their tightly held beliefs. Fake news is anything that contradicts or threatens those beliefs. Facts are optional. Honestly, I don’t think anyone should be allowed to vote, run for office, or drive (that’ll get them) who can’t pass a citizenship test. We need to stop giving rights to those who treat the Constitution as a document they can customize to suit their needs.
But the problem is not the Russians — it’s us. We’re getting played because too many Americans are ill equipped to perform the basic functions of citizenship.
Some would argue it’s the other way around . . . The one’s without the law degree that is now required for all intent and purpose. Even the best poker players in the world lose to those who have stacked the deck they deal..
It’s the sheer smugness of the liberal elite that guarantees Trump will have supporters and it’s hard to blame them. It hardly has anything to do with him personally. Given the lesser of two evils, evil naturally results as the outcome.
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I have three nephews of which only one has graduated from college. He is the one of the three who believes in fake news, thinks Trump is the best thing since sliced bread. Ironically, if it wasn't for President Obama, he, his wife and two kids wouldn't be in their lovely three bedroom house in a lovely neighborhood on Long Island. He was a finance major. Clearly, he learned nothing. Education means nothing in this world we live in. Good old Civics and Social Studies are more and more important. I want to thank Mr. B., my American history teacher in 11th grade, for making me pay attention. (93 in the Regents!) Pay attention, people! Those that do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Now, more than ever, so very true.
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As a retired attorney, I've been offering a "down and dirty" class on our Founding documents for several years. (I call it Our First Words) For free. I was inspired to do so by my looking around in amazement after I retired at how often people seemed to just not care about their rights being trampled upon....from voting rights to freedom of speech and assembly rights, ad nauseum. I spoke to alot of folks, and quickly ascertained that it wasn't so much that they didn't care, but rather that they either didn't know that they had rights and/or what exactly those rights are. Seriously...I kid you not. Now I live in Arizona, so this state of affairs may be more prevalent here than elsewhere (we are, after all, rated at the bottom on virtually any measure of the quality of public education) but outside of the coasts, I venture to guess that this situation is pretty commonplace. As a nation, we have allowed people with bad motives to steal our children's and grandchildren's futures by dumbing down education across the board, as well as neglecting to teach social skills that have been lost to technology. Many people don't know how to figure out if someone is lying to them or not..etc.
The only answer in my opinion is to get off of our you-know-whats and start having personal, face-to-face, voice-to-voice interactions with our neighbors, co-workers, friends, and others. We need to reach out and touch each other again if we are to survive as a nation....in my opinion.
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i'm not sure americans (or, really, human beings the world over) have ever been particularly intelligent. our history is rife with stories of the powerful bamboozling nominal citizens into stupid wars, shell games, boondoggles, lies big and small. stories of wise collective political action don't readily leap to mind. on the left we count the civil rights and antiwar movements as triumphs; perhaps those on the right take comfort in the soviet union's collapse. but, to quote an eminent leader, how's that hopey-changey thing going now?
An interesting symptom of this problem is that dirty word and epithet "LIBERAL."
It means free, and it originally referred to the the free citizens of Rome who were qualified to vote. Thus a "liberal arts education" is an education in what an informed citizen needs to know in order to be part of a democracy.
No wonder the GOP thinks "liberal" is an epithet.
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I does seem as though our political system is on its last wobbly legs and that any country that elects a megalomaniac to the highest post is about to collapse under the weight of its own ignorance. But I keep thinking that the majority of people have always been ignorant, illiterate, racist, and gullible. "There's a sucker born every minute" isn't something that was just coined last year. And the U. S. Army had to establish literacy classes at the beginning of WWII so the men it had drafted could read their rifle manuals. I was born in 1949 and it hasn't been until the last couple of decades that I've noted a real pushback against racist behavior in our country. Franklin Roosevelt got into the White House because people woke up briefly after the Depression (hunger tends to keep people uncomfortable) and decided it was time to throw the Capitalists out for awhile. No. The biggest change I've seen is the heightened speed and deftness of the manipulators who now use strategies based on complex, long-term calculations. How do you game the elections? Plan decades ahead for how to stack the deck of the Electoral College. (Note: we've now lost two Presidential elections thanks to the EC's tilted numbers--Gore vs. Bush and Clinton vs. Trump) Get rid of the FCC rules that prevented money from taking over the airwaves (in case you missed it, this happened during the Reagan Administration and has been getting worse with every consolidation of radio and TV companies).
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It’s worse than that. Far too many of my fellow college-educated liberals are far too quick to check intellectual integrity and critical reasoning at the door of the latest outrage: the daily litany of Trumpisms or the current surge of sexual harassment revelations. So bring on the civics and history classes, teach rhetorical strategies and the critical analysis of arguments and their sources, but let’s not let people graduate from college without a clear indication they understand fact from fiction and the difference between ideas and ideologies.
I played a little game with myself when reading this. I thought: "I'll bet I can hold my breath and have plenty of air left by the time i reach the first line that blames the educational system." I've been teaching high school for 30 years, the last 15 in an underserved urban school. Much of this time I have taught Civics, History, Government, whatever you want to call it. How is it that it is the educational system that is to blame for a 71 year old fool who obviously knows little and cares less about what the Constitution says? Or the college-educated fools, many of them "elite" college grads who enable him, people much older than my students? For fun we sometimes watch a segment of "Man on the Street" type bits in which late night hosts reaffirm how ignorant people are who are walking around on any city street. My students laugh uproariously and ask "How does anybody NOT know that stuff,?" because i guarantee you, my kids do. ... Education has become a meal ticket, a place to make connections for profit and to build resumes to reach the golden ring. Educational institutions are ONE aspect of people's lives, and not nearly the most influential. Please get off the bandwagon of bashing schools and teachers who shovel against the tide of mediocrity, willful ignorance, and avarice that is coming to define this country. Need proof? Watch Fox News.
Ah, I remember when my grade school (before the days on Junior High) had mock presidential conventions with everyone playing rolls - we filled the school auditorium with pretend candidates like Lindy Mugwump and Jerry Mander, convention delegates, and everyone went through the whole process of making campaign speeches, voting by state, counting delegates, choosing candidates (OK no smoke filled rooms - we were just kids). Can't imagine anything like that happening nowadays.
The persistent core or floor for support of President Trump seems to be in the mid to high 30% range, which corresponds to polling before the election that found that 54% of Republican primary voters believed President Obama was a Muslim, which echos the birther lie that Obama was not born in the United States but in Kenya. Not coincidentally that fantasy was Trump's calling card to the GOP. Egan is right. Stupidity seems the state of nature for many Americans but I sense that such egregious error comes naturally to Trump supporters.
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It is heartening to learn that H.S. students in some states must pass a very basic citizenship test, but how have we reached this nadir in civic knowledge and basic history?
There is plenty of blame to go around. The high school football coach Biff Touchdown as history or social science teacher (what, you thought he'd teach chemistry?). The state or local education authorities giving in on curriculum issues to activists of both polarities. With instructional time precious (ask teachers) civics and American history ditched for either conservative themes or diversity "cores" focusing on this or that obscure poet, writer or movement of "marginalized" people. Hamilton, Madison and FDR get short shrift, as does the working processes of our government.
Then on top, you have popular culture. Dumbed down doesn't even comes close to describing the fare of the average American viewer/consumer. The nefarious Russians had sitting ducks in their sights when they spread their falsities.
1
Look at the immediate massive opposition, the saturation coverage (and viewing numbers) by MSNBC and other outlets, the incredible number of formerly passive voters now clamoring to be candidates in local elections, and the results of last week’s elections! The Trump presidency may be the education remedy we have needed.
When we finally regain our national sanity, we will see how lucky we have been. The first president to make a serious effort to become a dictator was also—thank our lucky stars—a bumbling, massively ignorant, intellectually lazy, unhinged grifter, with a totally obvious disrespect for the Constitution.
What if it had been a highly intelligent, well-educated, hardworking Machiavelli?
We will know in excruciating detail exactly how we need to fix our system to prevent this from ever happening again. And, given all the damage he will have done, we will be highly motivated to do so.
A number of states seceded from the Union before Abraham Lincoln took office. The immediate cause of the Civil War was the attempt to repel a dissolution of the Union. The reason those states seceded was because of a threat to slavery. To suggest slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War was slavery is not accurate.
Trump claims the new tax bill has historic tax cuts for the American people. But in fact the opposite is true. There are instead historic tax increases for the middle class and the poor. Didn't he read the bill or is he lying as usual. Probably both!
1
In order to be informed one needs to seek objective balance with an open mind and be willing to reason beyond purely partisan sources. Those partisan sources have learned that it is quite easy to train their lemmings through platforms of fear and hatred of all things not them. The pipers who play their lemmings should be ashamed of themselves. Ashamed of themselves because their nefarious brain washing agendas are producing clueless dolts who would rather endure self inflicted pain than entertain any notion that there may very well be reasonable alternatives. Our problems are not a matter of civics. They are a matter of partisan predators preying on the weak in order to achieve disingenuous goals.
2
The world, our management, our technology, our climate, our health, our interdependent global economy- to understand and make informed choices has gone beyond the capacity of the uneducated and those lacking basic intelligence.
We are there, and have been there for a while.
What more proof do we need, than the shameful reality of today?
How can this be managed? So many don't vote, and so many who do make their choices for all the wrong reasons.
We are dangling from the end of the rope.
1
I couldn't disagree more with the idea of a test before allowing people the RIGHT to vote.the problem isn't too many people voting , its too FEW. it strikes me as odd the notion that people who aren't educated or aren't informed are somehow responsible for trump getting elected. thats just not the case. nor did the Russians meddling result in his election. too few people eligible to vote are registered . too few people registered came out. you are all buying in to what both major parties are selling. voter suppression. this is America people we get to vote. take action to make sure more people do not less . then accept the results. its your duty as citizens
The phenomenon is called the Dunning-Kruger effect, defined in the wikipedia entry for the condition as "a cognitive bias, wherein persons of low ability suffer from illusory superiority when they mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is." What's special about this manifestation is that it affects a large distinct subset of people in our country: ignorant people who believe with all their hearts they know more than the experts, the media, and all the other people they define as "others".
What's not so clear is why it's occurring in such large numbers in our country and why it's happening now. Why does it appear to concentrate in specific regions and among people with specific attributes, e.g., evangelicals. What can we do to remedy this problem, when so many of these people fight against the very policies that might help them?
It's the certainty these people have of their knowledge and rectitude that makes this problem so intractable. They have no doubt that they already know everything that needs to be known. They are convinced that their values have been subverted, that they alone lead moral lives and the Others (i.e., elites, minorities, ethnics, blue staters, intellectuals, LGBTs, et al) do not, and that the Others are engaged in powerful and evil conspiracies to cheat them and destroy the nation.
No matter what we say, write, or prove, they're certain that the epithet "stupid" applies to us and certainly not to them.
3
YES. Thank you for expressing exactly what’s wrong so clearly. This is where we need to start in order to fix our very broken nation.
1
I watch Washington Journal on CSPAN on a regular basis. The premise of the show is, basically, to give anyone the opportunity to phone in and give their take on current political concerns. Almost on a daily basis you get some version of this: Commentator: What is the source of your information? Caller: The internet.
This is exhibit A of why we have a President Trump. Willful stupidity is threatening the very idea of America.
1
I am one of those immigrants who just passed that test a few weeks back after living here for 17 years. The fact the one in three Americans would fail the citizenship test is unbelievable. I grow up in a country which had dictatorship at the time. There was only one channel on TV constantly spreading "fake news". That is, we got to learn about how well the country was doing because of our "beloved" leader. What is happening in this country its truly scary to me because of what I have seen before. I hope not...
Technology has exceeded all expectations for speed in replacing reality as the Internet constructs an Amerika that is swiftly replacing the real thing. For those never taught how to think, there's no easy test, like holding a mirror under the nose to detect a breath, that they can use to determine the real thing from the pretender. Reality has become whatever makes them feel good, whatever is easiest, whatever reinforces the limited thinking they're capable of. Now higher education and the disciplined thinking that comes with it is being made even more inaccessible by a nationwide acceleration movement that is cutting off the remediation people need to think, read, and write for college and informed citizenship. Who benefits most from a population of unthinking powerless drones?
1
The right in America preaches self-reliance and personal responsibility. America is all about opportunity and initiative they chant like a gospel choir. You make it or you break it but either way you own it. More Atlas Mugged than Atlas Shrugged for the Ayn Rand acolytes on the right.
So why is Mr. Egan eager to postulate political illiteracy and pseudo-nativism as our collective fault?
It's obvious by now that Trumpism isn't so much an intellectual disability as it is an emotional state steeped in weaponized self-loathing and tribal rage.
The only shred of rationality is the therapeutic illusion of holier-than-thou as a palliative for miserable, meaningless lives empty of larger purpose beyond instant self-gratification, status and celebrity obsession.
When they sin it's the devil who made them do it. The scope of personal culpability extends no further than scapegoating: the government, politicians, the Washington swamp, those raping, terrorizing, job-stealing immigrants contemptible for their dark skin. (The Irish diaspora white as snow can hide in plain sight.)
Sorry, Mr. Egan. It's their golden rule -- they have the gold and they make the rules. Heads they win, tails we lose.
Our only complicity is tolerating their sodden duplicity and their egregious bad faith. We weren't with stupid but too many mistook it as a human condition and not a contagion of political disease.
But I'll take them at their word: They broke it. But they don't own it.
all most every think l read was good, but friends our country is in a big trouble , the problem is not the Russians but it is who this county elected for president, when we get marry we think we did the best choose , or job or religion and so forth, but when we see our choose was not a good one for us than we get divorce or change jobs, and even religion, we and the whole world know that Mr.Trump can not run America, our house and Senate is not working we love our country if Mr.Trump loves it too he must resign , if he will not than this country must tell him to go away
Thanks for the sounding the alarm! We're in REALLY BIG trouble with all these stooopid voters/citizens being duped! Except that...every one of the arguments you raise in your piece has been used by people representing threatened elites, racists, anti-immigrant groups, chauvinists and others since our founding. If we choose an all-inclusive, no-minimum-competency-standards democracy, you get what you get. What's the alternative? Elitism, defined by the elite de jour? No thank you. Our current system may be deeply flawed, but it is the best anyone has come up with to date.
People so inclined bought hook line and sinker Thomas Jefferson's vicious lies about John Adams in our third election (Pamphlet Campaign) , and Franklin Roosevelt, believe it or not, ran on the "platform" of slashing Herbert Hoover's big government spending. Voters may be stooopid, but journalists should be required to read some history before they bemoan the deplorable state of the electorate, sir. Finally, digital doesn't change the game, it merely continues it.
A lot of the people reading this column is getting a headache from thinking, from being confronted to their own ignorance.
This thing you describe, Mr. Egan, is taking epidemic proportions. The world seem to love ignorance and superficiality (Ms. Kin Kardashian and her show).
Education is key
I knew we were in trouble, as a nation, when it wasn't cool to get good grades.
2
I think one of The New York Times' greatest strenghths as a purveyor of information is one of its greatest weaknesses - that it incessantly seeks the newest details of stories (problems) as they worsen, leaving a transcient trail of interesting facts, endlessly disappearing. Much of politics and much of learning is about repetition, and without an underlying organization of novel facts, much of their impact can be lost. Maybe a "fact sheet" approach to organizing information - in addition to the usual - would be a more effective way of disseminating it; perhaps presented with different layers of detail. Say if people wanted a categorized list of all reasons the current president should never have been elected and should be impeached (mental illness, no political experience, shoddy business career rife with fraud, etc) rather than searching separate topics spread out over thousands of articles, they could look at an indexed compendium of "dirt." ~50% of Trump voters didn't even know he was born rich - facts must be made unavoidable.
I feel like vomiting after reading this. Not because I disagree, but because this piece is right on the money, and I fear for the future!
Thank you so much for reminding us that the responsibility is in our court to maintain the values of the U.S. Consitution by educating those who do not know it. That's why those of us who know it should not be quieted by mainstream ignorance but should kindly, non-judgmentally educate our fellow "Americans".
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it." - Abraham Lincoln, letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
You were saying, Mr. Egan?
Given that our youngsters are generally dumber than our oldsters -- and they are, for whatever reason -- here's a tool that will help them catch up if they so desire.
University of Michigan offers an easy and free course on how to differentiate between real news and fake news. I wish I could have had my students (in all classes on all subjects) required to watch it.
https://www.edx.org/course/fake-news-facts-alternative-facts-michiganx-t...
In America we have rights as citizens that are the envy of the world, but we have to take the bad with the good. That includes the right to be uninformed, make awful decisions to our own detriment, and risk losing it all by choosing to be ignorant.
1
I agree with you; we need to do more in the schools to address this. Let's start with:
1. What is a newspaper? Are newspapers of equal quality?
2. What are Journalistic standards/ethics?
3. How do you judge the quality, authenticity and value of info on a website?
And so on. Because if people can't distinguish between an actual news report and a Facebook post, we have a problem. And if they have no curiosity about the world around them and zero desire to know the truth/facts, then that's just downright sad.
1
I know one thing. it wasn't conservatives who systematically purged the teaching of civics and American history from the schools. I think what we're seeing is the folly of the left's "long march through the institutions."
1
I agree our education system has failed the citizenship test. Why have our high schools failed? Is government that controversial that it can not be taught? It is definitely time to teach lies from facts. Fact from fake. Our democracy depends on it.
1
Thank you for this, Mr. Egan. As a high school student who sailed through without paying as much attention as I should have, I am pleased at how much of the civics classes' material I retained, and how useful it is to me today. It is sad to know that so many in school today will be so uninformed on the basic principles of our democracy.
1
Totes well-stated points, mate.
I note that you could change a few words to your last paragraph so that American history to this point of “digital safe spaces” can be better explained, as background for the many younger secular Americans who would or do prioritise civics more easily.
“But those initiatives will mean little if people still insist on believing what they want to believe, living in [religious corporate communes] closed off from anything that intrudes on their worldview.”
I have to wonder what percentage of Trump supporters would pass the citizenship exam.
3
Tweeter is headquartered in San Francisco, but it is a multinational platform that serves users worldwide regardless of nationalities. There is no reason Russians should tweet their opinion about U.S. elections. American tweet about Russian politics. I don’t think the 130,000 messages tweeted by Russians during the 2016 election “clogged the arteries of democracy.“ According to Tweeter, “Every second, on average, around 6,000 tweets are tweeted on Twitter, which corresponds to over 350,000 tweets sent per minute, 500 million tweets per day and around 200 billion tweets per year.” If the Kremlin had orchestrated a tweeter campaign, the number of tweets would be in the hundreds of millions. Tweeter displays a graphic that tracks the numbers of tweets per second at http://www.internetlivestats.com/twitter-statistics/
Yes, education is the key! But you need to support its basement: The educators (principals, teachers, etc).
5
Trump makes me embarrassed to be a white male. If I were black, at least I would know I never benefitted from the likes of his extremely unfunny moronic conduct. As it stands now, his highly focused incompetence doesn't hurt my pocketbook too much -- yet. I would gladly pay more in taxes to get rid of the pain, the pain of seeing him every day.
6
The bell shaped curve of American Intelligence has a big bottom end.
Nothing standard about our deviation
4
It gets worse.
I knew a very successful college educated businessman in New Orleans who thinks the earth is only 10k years old, there was an Adam and Eve and that everything and anything that happens in the world is “God’s will.”
He votes Republican, every time.
5
The best national security is a well educated society.
7
I can easily envision Trump riding the bomb like Major Kong in Dr. Strangelove as he drops it on North Korea and his followers cheering and giving him two thumbs up.
2
Bottom line. We are not self aware of anything.
You gotta have your priorities. No one in LA will tell you that the Dodgers won the World Series. In sports, facts matter.
1
Who's truth would prevail in the curriculum?
Would the School Board agree with your version?
1
Yes, we need basic teaching of the constitution and its meaning. Of course that would have to point out that sometimes its meaning is not clear. A friend lives in small town which is SPONSORING a "Christmas celebration" which includes Santa Clause and a reading of the "Christmas Story." On town property. My friend asked them to please describe the meaning of "Christmas Story" thinking perhaps they meant one of the famous "Night Before Christmas" poems. But no, they said it was the bible reading of the birth of Christ story. They said it had always been a tradition. Any American understanding the constitution would know that a U.S. government cannot sponsor a religious service of a specific religion. The town said it was a "tradition." Slavery was once considered a fine tradition in U.S. as was the limiting of voting to only men. And only allowing heterosexuals to marry and keeping gays in the closet. I could go on: cannibalism, foot-binding, suttee, genital mutilation of women, etc. using “tradition” and “custom” to justify an action are quite absurd. This is a classic error of logic: Appeal to Tradition! So famous that it is in all lists of common errors of logic and is known in latin as “argumentum ad antiquitatem.” In other words, “this is correct because we have always done it this way.”
So you can see that along with teaching the Constitution we need to teach critical thinking and the common errors of logic. I understand Texas has banned critical thinking in K-12.
3
Remove the idiot. I'm frankly fed up with people whining about Trump and then lacking the courage to confront the supporters of this dim-witted, dangerous narcissist and megalomaniac. People, the power is in your hands. Let me restate for emphasis: you remove politicians like Trump at the ballot box, but if they somehow manage to get elected, our Constitution has proscribed methods to bring sanity back to the nation: Impeachment.
Trump retains his power only because he is a bully and Republican politicians see him as their vehicle for power retention; Conservative principles be damned and political norms be cast asunder. Had enough of the moron Trump? Don't wait till it's 2018 - get going with Impeachment. Now.
9
The US (and many western countries) have bred an environment where bare minimums of general knowledge are acceptable, even desirable traits.
By general knowledge I mean civics, rights, police rights (and limits), consequences of acts, money, interest, banking, cash flow, cash management, home economics (not how to bake a cake), taxes, what the three branches of government are, etc. and so on. Not to know these thing to pass a test in school ... but to be well equipped for life. On the other hand, passing such tests would be "a good thing".
Why?
IMO, nobody should have the right to bear arms, buy alcohol or cigarettes, drive a car or vote unless they could pass a test on the above. Being 18/21 is not a proof of adulthood. It's just proof time has gone by.
Instead a bunch of under-educated, poorly informed and easily misled (forgive me) white, angry males howl and whoop up the internet in the largest false information echo chamber out there.
As to the p*ssy grabber in Chief, he just validates the stupid.
Quite tragic. Worst would be Pence. But then he wasn't brought on to be President unless the current nightmare isn't enough ...
5
As depressing as Egan's message is IT'S TRUE. Almost 63million voted for Trump in 2016. Judge Moore may win the senate seat in Alabama.
No wonder--1/3 of Americans cannot name a single branch of government. Egan proposes that potential voters must pass the test that immigrants take for US citizenship. YES! Discriminate against stupid.
Keep it up Egan.
3
This road to ruin is a deliberate and unforgivable political strategy, and it's all Republican.
Case in point from Texas, over 5 years ago.
"GOP Opposes Critical Thinking"
Party platform paints original ideas as a liberal conspiracy
By Richard Whittaker, 1:17PM, Wed. Jun. 27, 2012
https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2012-06-27/gop-opposes-critic...
"Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."
The Republican Party is not the solution to our problem; the Republican Party is the problem.
3
The populace's education in civics really started declining in the 1960s.
Television became prevalent in most U.S. households in the 1960s.
Coincidence? I think not. For the sake of humanity, read!
2
By the way, who is offering to sponsor Trump 2000 AntiTruth Day, the day his regime tells its 2000th lie? It might involve wagering on the hour/min/sec of a particular day, say, in March. Offer the winner a passport to some modern industrial country like Sweden or Canada.
2
I don't know anyone outside liberal media still hoping the Russia scandal is anything but a lot of dumb people doing dumb things, but I'm sick of hearing that "the problem is us" re: Trump.
The problem is the system that allowed him to secure a party nomination. The problem are the politicians happier with legislative inaction than working to impeach a proven danger. The problem is the media continuing to divide Democrat and Republican, rich and poor, black and white, man and woman.
The ultimate irony of the current political climate is that the supposed victims of the 2016 election have learned even less than the hooded steamrollers espousing philosophies more discriminatory than even the most racist Civil War defender.
We may live in a time where vocal defection is more necessary than ever, but "anti-Trumpism" isn't good enough. You aren't a decent person for just being decent. Get up and fight for your fellow man, and ignore ego-stroking opinion articles like this one.
2
While my comment is not an original thought it resonates. We have been subjected to “Gaslighting”.
Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief. We are all constantly exposed to some form of gaslighting. People are burned out.
3
When Hillary Linton talked about a “vast right wing conspiracy,” she was correct. But the conspiracy was to make our country ignorant, and the right wing, by systematically undermining public education, has succeeded. I am not at all sure we can recover from Trump’s stupidity. Make America Smart Again.
4
I had both government and civics in high school. At the time I was completely uninterested and retained little. While I do think it is important to teach these subjects to children that can't be the whole answer.
Towards the end of college I had a big awakening. I had spent a summer abroad and it gave me the motivation and interest I had been lacking. I've never looked back and I devour knowledge at every opportunity.
What can we do to inspire the quest for knowledge in our fellow man? For me it was travel, but for others? Something isn't clicking and we desperately need it to.
1
Stupid is as stupid does. Such a shame the breakdown we are seeing in today's gross and disgusting world of politics exemplifies this principle. Does anyone out there have the guts to say: "No, that's not correct. The moon is NOT made of cheese"? Clearly that would mean too much thinking. God forbid.
It is tragic. And I suspect that it is also beyond repair. Around 30 years ago when moving to the US from Latin America, sick of deceit, corruption and lies, the States were projecting hope and a sense of integrity that felt like magic.
Now I know it was a mirage and this article brilliantly describes the phenomenon.
Decades ago I remember expressing the concept of why doctors, architects, and lawyers must become licensed after grueling college years and strict exams and why any ignoramus rotten punk could run as a politician with no preparation at all in spite of the huge damage he or she could do to society.
What now puzzles me is how come that the great old USA has joined the club?
1
Good point. Unfortunately Stupid is going to put an end to what was a pretty good life.
With Facebook and Google algorithms tuned to maximise hits, FAKE NEWS hits the headlines – mud sticks long after the story has moved on – so now people no longer care - ‘we start with our prejudice, then select facts to support it’ - we no longer argue in public, we lob insults at each other from behind our computer firewalls.
Billionaire FOX news feeds the daily lie to unthinking conservatives, while billionaire tax cuts are done behind the bread and circus dancing distraction show.
Please stop the false equivalency nonsense that it's "us". Many of "us" saw through the charade of bloggers and Fox masquerading as journalists. We tried to warn our friends and family and were alarmed reputable news organizations fenced stolen emails for Russia as "news" and disheartened some of our progressive friends believed stealing and publishing email was honorable. There is no honor among thieves, and many of us saw the charade and tried to raise the alarm but were silenced by the "scoop".
Trump is the apex of ignorance and bombast in picking and choosing what one wants to believe. FOX news got the avalanche started, along with Rush and other narrow minded folks on the radio.
I have tried in vain, many times, to explain to 'news pickers' – choosing that which supports one's views – that they are truly missing the boat.
The news consists of facts and knowable, observable truth – not opinions you happen to like and share.
So far the only good thing I can see out of this epic disaster – otherwise known as Trump – is the women speaking out everywhere. We are in the midst of a genuine cultural sea-change, and I think it is a direct response to this boorish lout of a president.
Which is why Trump admin is assaulting public education. Dumb and dumber are working for the Donald’s policies, if not his re-election.
"I love the poorly educated." -President Trump
We got the president we deserved.
I'm a documentary filmmaker who has covered world events for over 30 years. I also have a background in news. What I do today is not news, but point of view documentaries similar to your Opinion page. I have a friend who is brilliant who completely has fallen for the fake news stuff. He's glued, and I mean literally, to the morning conservative talk shows. My point is, he's an electronics genius but these shows ring true to him. I have no idea how any of this is going to improve. Mickey
To me, the most disgusting thing about this is that GOP senators know exactly what the constitution says yet they turn their backs on it because Trump is a useful fool-tool for their aims. If the voting population is brainwashed into believing things that harm them - like arguing against a reasonable minimum wage - then fools will vote against it because the puppet master says so.
We need to do everything in our power to remove these men from office. Otherwise the Great Recession will look like a picnic.
1
If immigrants need to pass a test to become USA citizens, then it is only fair that people born in the USA should have to pass that same test to obtain citizenship. Anything else is discrimination based on the location of someone's birth, which is just as unjust as discrimination based on their skin color.
History is filled with societies that followed primitive passions-- bigotry, racism, hatred for other points of view. Eventually, those societies either consumed themselves and failed or were conquered by a society that was less self destructive. Hard to say where the USA will be in 20 years, but this present path will not go on indefinitely. We will self immolate ourselves, be taken over by a less self destructive country or perhaps change course.
I'm not holding my breath.............
1
These kids and others are too busy staring at their phones to remain self aware.
If Facebook were run by people with any semblance of honor and decency, they would not hesitate to put the following message on their website's homepage upon login:
"Notice: Facebook is meant for your enjoyment and entertainment. DO NOT use this website as a news source for important information."
This will never happen, of course. Just like the health warnings on a pack of cigarettes, they are just empty words to their users.
Addressing our citizenry's inability to discern fact from fiction is incredibly poignant. You don't need to be college educated you to use reason and recognize the fictitious stories that so many scramble to share before even considering their journalistic merit. IMHO we should have a shaking index finger trained on our public school educators.
Egan's mention of the editorial board's admonition to Trump to actually read the U.S. Constitution—what a tragedy that we've come to that!—along with Trump's unending radical, anarchic attempts to shatter the nation's guiding principles that he swore on a bible to uphold begs a fundamental question about the character of this nation: what kind of people are we that we tolerate without consequence the nonstop lawlessness of a serial lawbreaker who's supposed to be leading us?
1
The last sentence is a perfect synopsis of the whole.
But this is what the republicans, with their brutal capitalist agenda, depend on—an ignorant, easily tricked electorate. The GOP couldn’t survive if the population were more broadly educated.
I just saw a 1966 movie that was brilliant that reminded me of Trump and the perplexing GOP gang its supporters. "The Chase" has a major cast and was meaningful today regarding the pro-gun wackos and misguided dangerous follow-the-leader nuts we have now across the country.
The people of this town were mostly all sadly deplorable too. I wish people like this could see themselves. Complicit at the very least.
The Chase - Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, E. G. Marshall, Angie Dickinson. 1966. Based on "The Chase" 1952 play, and 1956 novel by Horton Foote.
How do you speak to these folks to get them to vote sensibly, ethically and even in their own best interests? They always see red?
Civics as part of school curricula has declined for decades, in part due to an increasing emphasis on areas like STEM subjects. While all states apparently require some sort of civics coursework, the amount of coursework varies by state. The situation is further confused by an “either-or” option in many states between civics and social studies. Only 37 of the states require a demonstration of proficiency in civics or social studies. According to the NEA (National Educational Association), only 25 percent of U.S. students reach the ‘proficient’ standard on the national civics assessment test.
Whatever the case, civics education clearly is not working. Too often the course is taught “to the test” requiring only rote memorization from students. There is very little practical application of the subject matter. For the student, civics becomes just another abstract exercise to endure, rather than something that has meaning in their lives.
I’m guessing that when civics is taught, it is taught as it was to me, on a theoretical level – how our government is supposed to work - rather than on a realistic one. Learning how our president is elected is meaningless without an understanding of how the electoral system is manipulated. Do students learn about gerrymandering, voter suppression laws, and money in politics? How to interpret a political ad? How to ferret out the truth? Without a foundation in reality, our students will not be prepared to be effective citizens.
3
I am an immigrant from the UK. Yes I passed the citizenship test.
I remember one particular incident at a football game, after the national anthem was played, ribbing the person I was with about the national anthem being about bashing the British. I was rather dumbfounded when someone sitting next to me came up with "But the Britain and the US have always been allies?"
In any case, the citizenship test is an excellent requirement for high school graduation.
14
I taught university students for years--freshmen to graduate students. In the late 1970s, it was apparent that students did not wish to learn much of anything. they had no common knowledge - history, political science, biology, none of it. As a group they had difficulty thinking: unable to compare and contrast, unable to analyze, unable to identify basic elements of a pro/con discussion. And they did not care to learn, had no concern about their limits. We have allowed learning and knowing to become meaningless in this country. Until that value changes, we will continue to be lost and to fail.
7
Begins in the home.
From a very young age my son learned that the first thing he should do when a person makes an assertion that he cannot verify from simple observation, is to ask a simple question: "What is the evidence?"
And that would hold even when the person making the assertion was yours truly. He knew that whatever his own question, including why he had to eat his vegetables, brush his teeth, follow my instructions, etc. ... he would never, ever be told, "Because I said so."
If as an adult he chooses to indulge in religion or other forms of arbitrary or magical thinking, he is free to do so. As a parent one can never predict, but I suspect the critical-thinking skills he learned from a young age will help him resist much of that sort of thing.
13
I agree with the problem but disagree with the solution. Civics should absolutely be taught in school, perhaps in junior year just prior to getting the right to vote, thus increasing education about our government and an excitement to participate. However, rather than a "poll tax", how about if the FCC actually does its job. Stop the mergers of local television new channels, where many Americans get their news (Sinclair, anyone), and make sure television stations have actual standards. Reporting opinion as news must be labeled as such. A good place to start would to be to label it as "opinion" in large letters at the bottom of the screen. News channels which broadcast lies as news must be held accountable. They should lose their broadcast license. Our budget should also increase funding for public broadcasting, not eliminate it. Finally, advertisers using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram must disclose ad buys and the ads must be clearly labeled as such.
29
@nj
I agree with most of your comment, but for the idea that instruction in civics and government should be saved until junior year. That is too long to wait for the practical study of government. Student government, in the form of Student Council, is found in most US K-12 schools. Even kindergartners and first graders will have a class representative to the Student Council and begin to understand how representative government works. Older students in many schools may participate in a Model UN, where they learn about diplomacy and international relations. Junior year may be a good time to review the basics, including the nuts and bolts of how good citizens inform themselves about the issues and candidates they are voting on. But long before that, our children need to learn American history, the branches of government, and gain an understanding of what the Constitution is about if they are to mature into responsible voters.
My other quibble is your statement that "Reporting opinion as news must be labeled as such. A good place to start would to be to label it as "opinion" in large letters at the bottom of the screen." This idea presupposes an audience that knows the difference between fact and opinion, and that an editorial isn't a news article. It is manifest that many Americans have no idea of the difference, and have not been exposed to evidence-based education, where teaching methods are based on significant and reliable evidence derived from empirical research.
1
I strongly urge people to apply local pressure on school boards everywhere to strengthen the teaching of basic civics in the public schools. What is needed is basic instruction in government structure: branches of government, structure of state and local governments, structure of political parties.
Fifty years ago, when I went to public school in Indiana, not an especially progressive place, it was done well there. But that kind of basic education has deteriorated or disappeared nearly everywhere. This is something that citizens can do something about at the local level in a nonpartisan,
nonideological way and I urge them to do it.
Whatever the ideological differences, they
will be better discussed and better solutions will emerge if the participants have basic knowledge of the structures of government.
16
It isn't fair to blame educators for everything not taught in our schools. For decades schools in many places have been under-funded by states and local lawmakers and have had to cancel all kinds of practical programs, not just civics, in order to keep the doors open. Standardized tests haven't helped, but this problem is older than no child left behind. Good education comes with a cost and we are a society that hasn't wanted to invest in it's young for quite a while now.
31
Today I volunteered in a 3rd grade classroom, which I do weekly. Today I helped some kids read and discuss American voting. How it came to be, how it works, why it’s important. One of the truly stupid phenomena today is the canard that public schools are bad, failing, no good. From left and right. But I suspect few actually know what happens in them. They just repeat what they’ve heard. When I challenge these opinions, this what I find. So go find out for yourselves — and stick around and help if you want.
I'm a Social Studies teacher at a public high school. Our schools desperately need new textbooks and resources. Civics is merely a one semester class that 12th graders need to pass to graduate. While the credit requirements and standardized testing of students has increased, Social Studies classes have shrunk because they don't have a standardized test student requirement. It seems like the subjects that have standardized tests attached are getting all of the emphasis and resources from our district/state/nation.
22
This could have been a great article. It could have been a chance to truly break down the fall of our culture and educational system in a meaningful way. Instead, it was used to feed more political pandering and unwittingly give a great example of how we got here. The photo you picked, the examples you give, all simply used as tools to push a political narrative.
How about we look at the many ways this exact kind of irresponsibility has heavily contributed to the state of affairs you speak of?
It could easily be argued that the ever-growing partisan bias of nearly all major US media outlets, forces people to have to read between the lines (and cross reference several sources) to be able to get an accurate baseline of the factual events that happen. This kind of climate makes it inevitable that those who are less judicious, will not have the facts.
It could easily be argued that it's inevitable that people get less from their education when open debate and discussion of ideas are discouraged in favor of political orthodoxy. How is someone to open their mind when they are scared to even openly express their ideas on penalty of being socially crucified?
It could easily be argued that assuring groups of people that they are brilliant and intellectual because they vote the right way, or have the correct opinion on political and social issues, breeds a unwarranted self-assurance. Who needs to hear new ideas or philosophies when the "correct" one has already been found?
12
Excellent critique. Best thing I've read all day. It is a great tragedy that our society can no longer engage in nuanced discussion about anything.
That statistic on how many Americans think the Civil War was about states’ rights turns up everywhere these days, without any discussion as to why that is the most common interpretation. In my generation (late Baby boomer), that is how the subject was taught: a schism that centered around slavery (human rights) developed into a war over states’ rights. I think that’s a valid way to interpret the war. Why does the answer have to be A or B? If some one asked me that question, I would say it was both.
31
> Passion
"The Civil War was about states' rights".
States' rights to do what? To legally enforce the suppression of their Black people would certainly appear to be one of those rights. If not, why did such legal suppression continue until Civil Rights' legislation was passed almost a hundred years later?
A battle over the right of a state to allow slaves. Why is that so hard to get one's mind around?
The Myth (states rights) is much easier to swallow for some than the Truth (corrupt culture). The gentlemens deal at the end of the civil war to unite the country was to allow this reframing of the conflict so the south would not seem so odious. In return, the south rejoined without a guerrilla war.
Yes many of us are very stupid, I include those "fact checkers" who don't understand the difference between objective facts and political speech. I greatly doubt that few ads had much effect, and eliminating them requires reducing freedom. Just more sore looser stuff, like Hillary complaining again since she lost due to her own actions and her corrupt incompetent self.
12
Vulcanalex, I disagree with you. Clinton lost primarily because Trump is a genius. Evil genius but nevertheless a genius.
That same tired argument; is that all you have? Every time someone criticizes Moore or Trump, conservatives pull out the "sore loser" argument. It's as if because you lost an election, you have forfeited your right to criticize the anyone in government. That's Trump's dream.
i'm curious: just what *is* the difference between objective fact and political speech?
I agree that low information voters are a challenge to our democracy. However, I do not believe that we can ever hope to implement a civics literacy test for the right to vote. However, that does not mean we cannot do much better on achieving civics literacy. Teaching civics as a required component of public education would be a great start. Including open discussions of current events and allowing free expression of all responsible ideas amongst secondary school students as a regular part of civics classroom discussions should encourage them to be aware of the spectrum of ideas and opinions from all perspectives.
Ultimately however, it is up to the individual voters to take responsibility for their own civics education and selection of information sources. Each individual will ultimately have to be responsible for building their own fact and fiction filters and arriving at their own views. The proliferation of media channels and news sources has allowed for many to disguise themselves or even openly take advocacy positions but represent them as "fair and balanced" news, even when they should more appropriately be labeled as propaganda.
I commend the NY Times for labeling news, analysis, and opinion appropriately in its own coverage. We all need to be as discriminating in our selection of source and filtering of them.
12
When I was in public schools in N.Y. City in the 1950's and 1960's, we knew the reasons behind school holidays- Washington's birthday, Lincoln's, Memorial Day, etc. Teachers incorporated such into curricula. In recent decades, when asking my children if they knew why they were off from school, the uniform answers were they did not. This was in several cities, both public and parochial schools. Time to have fun...
Citizenship and responsibility to be so informed should be part of the early educational process, especially if families themselves are clueless.
Problem now is several generations of teachers and parents were themselves raised in this neutered, sanitized system, and are passing it further.
23
You can thank "Tricky" Dick Nixon for turning our most important presidential holidays into mindless three day weekends completely devoid of their original meaning and intent. So began the sad sad era of citizen as 'mindless' consumer.
1
A lot of people are suggesting that education is the answer. Maybe. But I am not so sure. We are talking about a sort of intelligence that comes from parents, perhaps, via conversations with kids when they are 5 years old. A way of examining what is being said. Looking beyond the surface.
27
The parents need to be educated too.
Any effort to make humans smarter is doomed to failure. Better to ensure leadership cannot cross lines that take advantage of ignorance. Our founders knew this at some level. I think it is the reason we have a bicameral legislature and checks and balances.
Now, I think we have discovered our soft underbelly. We are in a race to the bottom. The speed with which someone can communicate a lie is far faster than the speed of truth. In other words, our tools have become weaponized by TV, the internet, and money. And we are now seeing how easy it is for unscrupulous politicians to manipulate the less informed.
Again, there will always be ignorant people. There will always be a divide. Laws need to focus on and modernize our systems.
19
And while we're trying to educate our people, how about a mandatory test for our politicians regarding our constitution? I bet at least 50% or more of those sitting in office now who were sworn to uphold our constitution would FAIL. We the people should demand that they take a constitutional knowledge test and pass it before running for office. While we are at it lets throw in a test of their mental health. If both these tests were given to those in office now, a large percentage of them would fail.
45
I used to believe that the gradual dumbing down of America was a result of misguided but not necessarily intentional acts of those in power. But I have come to believe that my innocent faith in the inherent goodness of man is perhaps what has been misguided all along. I, for one, have decided to invest all of my life savings in Gatorade.
17
Brilliant, succinct, and correct. "Suppose we treated citizenship like getting a driver's license. People would have to pass a simple test on American values, history and geography (and civics) before they were allowed to have a say in the system." So basic, so needed.
26
So we are going to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1965? Really?
Actually the aim of public education was NOT to produce an informed citizenry. It was meant to teach obedience, so that the wealthy would have a class of workers who would be obedient and not complain.
24
Then now does it happen that so many are complaining?
Is that a failure of public education?
1
RM, the aim of public education was also to inculcate the working class with capitalist social values. The ruling class had to indoctrinate the proletariat in order to assure their continued control of the socioeconomic/political system and to avoid the rise of a workers movement that would jeopardize said control.
Well that's just false.
I propose that all US citizens first appling for voting rights must take and pass the immigrant's citizen test. No exceptions, no grandfathering. Every voter must get a 75% correct score or they do not get to vote. And no more than 3 attempts within any 2-year period. Surely some will claim this proposal is racist or discriminatory - yeah OK - but voting is a benefit of citizenship and not to be treated without all due respect. If you do not do the work of citizenship, you do not get the benefit of selecting our leaders.
16
>GTM
"You do not get the benefits of selecting our leaders."
But we'd still be able to collect taxes off such persons though, right?
Reagan did away with the Fairness Doctrine in 1986, which led to propaganda outlets like Fox. Many people I know watch only Fox or listen to right wing radio. It remains to be seen whether our democracy can survive Fox..
67
Good point. And not coincidentally, Rupert Murdoch became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of 54 in 1985. Was it because of his great love for the U.S. Constitution? No, he just wanted to become eligible to buy a TV network in America since he saw what Reagan was doing and advocating.
Everyone around the world now knows: When Rupert Murdoch is attracted to your country, it's like a fly being attracted to a pile of dog waste.
55
"Now only a handful of states require proficiency in civics as a condition of high school graduation." And another handful have cut their school budgets to extent that they have been forced to reduce the school schedule to 4 days a week. So, vote for folks who believe that cutting taxes is the way to solve every problem, watch while the super wealthy are the ones who benefit most from those tax cuts and then have to figure out what to do with your children for one extra day a week (which means laying out money you probably don't have for childcare). Genius.
11
I agree with much of what you say, Mr. Egan, but please stop blaming the teachers for our lack of citizenship. Schools naturally have a place in teaching all kinds of values, but we cannot make up for an utter lack of decorum, decency, or intelligence in our society overall.
33
Rules, rules, rules... You are so last century. Everyone gets to make their own rules and facts. Decorum - that is discrimination and oppression. Decency? Dude I can do anything I want because I am entitled to do whatever, wherever, whenever, and however without ANY consequences.
Really, make yourself useful by telling us how we should feel and what we should be outraged over.
1
Since the education system in the US is local how can you really guarantee a universal civic education when different school districts even differ on a factual evidence of evolution versus creationism. In other words, how do you force a county in Alabama not to teach the legend of states rights rather than slavery as the reason for the civil war.
9
Exactly, and this is why the U.S. is not one whole country, but at least two, with radically different attitudes, beliefs and views of the world.
I'm beyond believing the two can be made whole.
“The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, naive presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.” —Carl Sagan, 1997
49
They used to say "don't believe everything you read".
The new mantra seems to be "I only read what I want to believe".
Thanks for this insightful article.
21
I’ve been saying this in somewhat hushed tones since Trump was elected and it does make me feel like an elitist, but democracy is dependent upon informed citizens and intelligent debate. We don’t have that.
36
Mr. Egan is eminently correct, but I think, with respect, that he omits one critical component with the educational problem. We do not teach our students to think critically, to be able to distinguish the probable from the improbable, to gather and evaluate evidence on their own. Too many people believe that if someone makes an authoritative-sounding statement on the television or radio (or even the Internet), it must be true. That is why the Russians were so successful.
As for Roy Moore, yes--he's a disgrace to the rule of law, the legal profession, and himself, but that's hardly news. He apparently isn't a very good lawyer, based on his most recent assertion that there is "no evidence" of his inappropriate behavior. There is lots of evidence. Multiple women have come forward with accounts of their own experiences with him. It is extraordinarily unlikely that these are fabricated accounts. No woman is going to go public because it's such fun to be identified as a victim of sexual assault. And although Mr. Moore seems to have forgotten his law school training (I'm assuming he went to law school), statements of victims and witnesses *are* evidence. He desperately hopes people will conclude that it is not credible evidence, but evidence it surely is. The rest of us are left to ponder who is more likely truthful, a former judge twice removed from the bench for ignoring the law, or women in a desperately uncomfortable position suffering public exposure.
15
I guess he's looking for an eye witness as evidence...
I am with you on the whole issue: at its heart, the decline of civic and general culture shows the failure of education in the US, result in part of the anti-tax movement of the 1970s. School budgets were cut, and salaries remained low, and the more qualified graduates shunned a teaching career. Each generation got worse.
I beg to differ, however, on the cause of the Civil War. Clearly, slavery was the epitome of North/South differences. But Lincoln made very clear — in his Letter to Horace Greeley (August 22, 1862) — "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it…" Even the Emancipation Proclamation did not free slaves in Tennessee, for ex.; only the 13th Amendment did.
The Confederate states believed it was their constitutional right to protect slavery; it was the basis of the agricultural economy and (feudal) way of life. Were the national balance between slave and non-slave states to change — as it was, with new states joining the Union prohibited from allowing slavery — their " sovereign rights" were threatened. Thus, they concluded they had to secede.
9
Hitting the nail on the head, squarely.
Unfortunately if we remedy the problems delineated in this article today it'll take about 20 years to see results. But that's true of a basic education in any case, right?
7
Tim Egan writes: "Suppose we treated citizenship like getting a driver’s license. People would have to pass a simple test on American values, history and geography before they were allowed to have a say in the system."
Here's a more fundamental version: "Suppose we treated running for higher office like getting a driver’s license. Potential candidates would have to pass a simple test on American values, history and geography before they were allowed to run for office."
Just imagine.
15
We are teaching kids all of these important things. The problem is they are kids. Adults need continuing education. Since news has become entertainment and propaganda and lies are protected free speech that is not going to happen.
8
The great historian, Richard Hofstadter, wrote a classic book in 1948, The American Political Tradition, which was critical of our presidents, including the sainted FDR. He accused him of being superficial and of having no systematic conception of America's role in the world. The book sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and is very much worth reading today.
Seven years later, in 1955, he wrote another classic book, The Age of Reform. This was during the height of the Red Scare and McCarthyism. In that book, he took aim at the people, specifically the populists of the 1890s, whom he found paranoid and anti-Semitic. Liberals did not like that book so much. And they probably won't like your provocative column, Mr. Egan.
2
YES. Citizens should have to pass a test demonstrating basic understanding of our democracy in order to be able to vote.
2
We Americans are far less engaged civilly, I would argue, because schools don't teach what it means to be an American.
Schools are test-obsessed, and too much of the history taught has been mythologized.
Thanksgiving is a perfect example. Virtually none of what kids are taught about Thanksgiving is true. Certainly they are not taught that within 10 years after the date we use for holiday Pilgrims, Puritans and Native Americans were engaged in bloody warfare.
It is still not common to teach children that genocide of Native Americans was American policy for decades.
The Civil War is taught in a variety of ways, depending on where the school is located. Often, slavery is neglected, or lumped in as just one cause along with states' rights.
I would venture to say that most Americans don't know that our longest running war is in Afghanistan.
Too many Americans care more about whether an athlete takes a knee than they do about the devastation of democracy under the Trump regime.
Waking up Americans is the urgent task, but who can say how we accomplish it?
I fear we as a nation have lost our sense of exceptionalism. We are moving rapidly down the road to also-ran nation status.
11
Philosophy is more or less divided on the subjective world (basically one's head) and the objective world (the empirical universe). When technology caters more and more to the subjective world -- with its prejudices, relativism, egotism, narcissism -- is it any wonder that people ignore the outside world? Robots and nerdy scientists can do that. Trump appeals to those lost in themselves because he's lost in himself.
2
It would be interesting to hear how much of the American public would pick up the Platonic reference near the end of this piece.
"And up until the 1960s, it was common for students to take three separate courses in civics and government before they got out of high school."
Evidence, please, Mr. Egan! That is an old canard. First, civics was typically a *one-semester* course in 9th grade -- and U.S. Government was an *elective*, not required for graduation.
Remember back then nearly half dropped out before graduating; most did not reach 12th grade to take the government course.
As to the high immigrant pass rates, they are given *all* the questions in advance! It's much like taking the written driver's license test. Study the DMV booklet & you'll pass. The citizenship case is even easier; you get a list of the 100 *multiple choice* questions beforehand and are asked twenty of them. No wonder 97% pass.
But the big problem is those civics courses and test have been focused on inert, factual material. At best, students study "How a Bill Becomes a Law" -- that is, the constitutional "facts" -- but NOT how it actually happens!
The courses ignore the role of lobbyists, and big monied interests, who actually *write* the bills *for* Congress, & give them junkets and donations. Learning some articles of the Constitution is OK, but we need civics students to study the real thing, analyze political propaganda and hypocrisy, AND actively participate in our democracy -- campaigning, educating, joining movements, and fighting for justice against powerful interests.
We need an education for democracy!
5
The author has the problem absolutely nailed. A very uninformed public has placed a completely unsuitable man in the presidency. And that president is no more than grifter who will pander to a base even though they are in the minority. Our system, which is anachronistic, allows politicians to pick their voters through gerrymandering and voter suppression, and keeps systems like the electoral college in place that allows a minority to elect a president.
What we are watching now is nothing less than a right wing putsch and corporate takeover. The barbarians are in the house. This presidency has diminished America's prospects to the point that it will take a generation to fix all of the problems it has created. I have no doubt that the current party in power will pay a price for all of this.
But for now I can't help but be ashamed for my country, and angry that so few have so severely damaged so many.
16
I would not hold your breath on republicans ever being held to account for their destruction of democracy to a plutocracy. As the article states the people who voted for a dictator are not intelligent or curious enough to figure out they the evil they voted in. As trump gives the already incredible wealthy more wealth and power at the expense of everyone else they will just blame liberals and Hillary.
Reagan killed democracy when he got rid of the fairness doctrine and Fox News will never tell the truth just Koch propaganda and these people will not watch anything but Fox News.
No Timothy it is not US it is THEM. Rural white people who are uneducated or right wing Evangelical and believe every word that comes out of Trump's lying mouth. Please do not cast dispersions on the entire nation. I have done my civic duty and voted in every Presidential election and off year election in the last 30 years. I have contributed to every campaign where I feel the Party has selected a good man or woman whose positions I agree with. I have voted Democrat, Republican , and Independent. I keep up with the issues and try to cast an informed vote. There are many people like me and always remember Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million. Don't paint with so broad a brush.
12
There should also be a poll tax to ensure only valid and legit people (Real Americans) can vote.
Right?
2
We could start by requiring mandatory conscription for all citizens of age, to have people grasp the real costs of war, and connect them to the country that they profess so much love for. They could do military or other community service, and truly become active citizens. This is the standard in Israel, and it's well-advised. Everyone participates.
5
I agree with much said in the column. But it pains me to realize that collectively we no longer strive as a country to take the moral high road and have lost our place in the world of being defenders of truth and freedom.
I choose to believe that, while we, as a people, have been far from perfect in the past, we attempted to move in the right direction.
Now, a great many is this country choose to ignore facts and believe that America is best represented by a boorish, threatening and reckless, strong man.
I wonder if we can ever redeem ourselves again as a people and country.
6
Russians may have uploaded a thousand videos to YouTube and published more than 130,000 messages on Twitter about last year’s election, but to assert that such a miniscule number of videos and tweets “clogged the arteries of our democracy” is absurd. American voters knew Russia and Vladimir Putin favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton only because Hillary kept telling them so. She made it a major talking point in her campaign speeches and in presidential debates. There’s no doubt that Hillary’s portrayal of Trump as “Putin’s Puppet” cost him votes. The U.S. Intelligence Community noted that beginning in June 2016 Putin stopped praising Donald Trump "probably because Kremlin officials thought that any praise from Putin personally would backfire in the United States."
3
Socrates was right about democracy.
2
I never met Socrates, but I did read Plato.
There is another aspect to responsible citizenry that appears to be lacking: critical reasoning skills.
Even if you don’t know all relevant facts you should be able to recognize illogical arguments.
Example: The climate science deniers argue that the climate scientists are prejudiced because they are paid for their science. Assuming that prejudice even comes into play, why wouldn’t the same argument be used to challenge the anti-climate science scientists?
6
The need to strengthen civics education is paramount, however civics cannot be just a series of courses in government, it must also show students how to engage with government, and that their voices matter. Students hunger not for formulaic readings and assignments about the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, but the opportunity to participate with their principles of self-government in a meaningful way. Though there are many reasons 40% of Americans didn't vote in 2016, 65% didn't vote in 2014, and more than 80% regularly skip their local elections, one of the most important is the perception that their votes did not count. States should teach civics, but the kind that focuses both on the principles of our democracy and the exercise of them; through activism, research, debate, and lobbying on the issues students care about.
9
Wonderful column. I loved it. However I just want to remind you that legally slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. It was the South trying to drop out of the union. I had a history professor correct students in one of my grad classes and I just has to mention it. Otherwise everything you write is in the genius category. Thanks you.
11
Good point. James McPherson wrote that, "The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The incoming Lincoln administration and most of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They feared that it would discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would eventually fragment the no-longer United States into several small, squabbling countries."
3
What does legally not slavery mean. It was the actual reason but not legally.
Morally the reason but not legally. How about some in the south just thought it but it wasn’t their legal reason.
Humans wanted the power to own other humans to save money on labor convincing themselves Africans aren’t human though not really evidence the raping of slaves. No mam. Legal reasons are determined in a court of law. Not the court of rationalizations.
Which came first the chicken or the egg....
Succession was driven by the economic model of slavery. Without slavery there would be no civil war.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/what-this-cruel-war...
Parents also are responsible for teaching their children about democracy and government. Let's not totally abdicate our responsibility to schools. There are plenty of kids' books that parents can read to younger kids and books that should be read instead of video games and screen time. And why can't dinner conversation include current events?
8
Bravo. Treacherous waters, navigated well. He avoids petty partisanship and political on-up-manship. This is about the crisis of democracy in the 21st century.
Maybe one day our citizenry will become so enlightened as to reduce defense spending by some reasonable number like 50%, and eliminate nuclear weapons.
11
HL Mencken spoke about. “ boobus Americanus ” a hundred years ago. The Scopes trail, evangelical mooing from Appalachia and barely literate Senators caused him to laugh and cry at the same moment.
Sadly, we have not improved over the years. Donald Trump alone would have sent Mencken into a frenzy and early grave. Is there a cure ? Perhaps , if the tax cut for the wealthy fails. Once folks escape the grip of the oligarchy , democracy may bloom and along with it , people’s intellects.
10
It’s time for the blue states to secede. Seriously. Let’s get together with the West Coast, write a new modern constitution, and let whoever wants to be a part of the new country be a part of it. Let the states that dont like the federal Govt. strangle it in a bathtub. The states that know Big Govt. is the only defense against big business and the Govt exists to do what individuals acting out of their own self interest won’t do get together and create a new great nation. Seriously. We are being ruled by an odious minority intent on staying in power.
This is a great piece. Another thing to consider is the effect government itself has had on education. Unfunded/poorly funded federal mandates have been the norm for education for a long time. The No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 led to overemphasis on standardized testing. As a mother of two children, I have witnessed a decrease in education quality as more attention is paid to standardized testing. Critics of the act decried lack of funding, and here in Pennsylvania, funding seemed tied to test scores. This in turn motivated school districts to "teach to the test."
This generally does not create well-rounded, critical thinking people. If government officials want to continue getting away with answering only to those who donate the most money, then maybe the true goal is to actually cultivate an uninformed electorate.
6
When you consider this has been coupled with an odd fixation on, and demonization of college as "liberal indoctrination" among the RW press, complete with "they silence dissent and our voices" storylines - I think it's pretty obvious that the true goal is exactly to cultivate a pliable, gullible electorate that is willing to buy whatever politicians and corporations want to sell them.
7
You can't cure stupid. It is a choice. Sad.
8
The cure is to not let people sink to that level. As an elementary school speech-language therapist, I encourage my students to keep their minds open to new ideas. Read. Stay informed. We spend so much time reading, thinking and discussing values, character traits and history. My kids have no choice but to think, learn and grow. You might be surprised at the brilliant comments I hear on a regular basis.
Thank you for the important reminder that most adults beyond middle age were educated about the structure and functions of government at all levels. In my school, we had a civics class in eighth grade where we actually discussed the news.
It is beyond sad that succeeding generations are voting and even governing in such an ill-informed way, see Trump, who daily embarrasses the nation or at least that part of it that sees how ill-informed and juvenile he is. Sad, indeed.
6
Having taught middle schoolers how to do research this librarian is in a state of shock daily. After stopping teaching the research study skills class in 2001 when retirement called , the memory of the last few years when parents, students and some teachers often said they didn’t need the course because they could get stuff “ off the internet” haunted me. Many did value instruction on what constitutes authoritative information vs. advertising and opinion etc. but one can look back and see the handwriting on the wall. Couple this with less and less time on civics and government in the social studies curriculum and here we are today.
12
The Civil War question is actually a bad example to have used, because, while slavery was obviously the loud issue, as near as I can tell it's considered a reasonable view to believe that more basically it was states' rights. In fact I thought that this was the dominant current view among historians. In any event, saying "states' rights" rather than slavery isn't anything like not knowing what happened on 9/11 or what ocean is on the west coast or what's one of the branches of government.
5
States’ rights were NOT the cause. The notion that they were was made up later by apologists for secession. The majority of seceding states explicitly made continuation of slavery the reason they were seceding, a most historians acknowledge. Not knowing the Pacific Ocean is simple ignorance; calling states’ rights the cause of the Civil War is accepting fake news.
It was about states’ rights to have slaves. Several states the Confederacy explicitly detailed that slave ownership was a right. That was the “right” that being in the United States wouldn’t allow them. It’s irresponsible to not name the horror that they fought for.
To our American cousins, please don't take this the wrong way, but we Canadians have been snickering about the geographical ignorance of Americans for years. Where it's highly likely an average 12 year old Canadian would answer more questions correctly about even US geography than the average US college graduate, and almost assured they could place more major international cities in the right county and continent.
We see it everyday when visiting the US and say where we are from, the utter blank look even it's Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, or Halifax, and where even adding in the province still doesn't seem to convey which side of the country we are on. My 22 year old daughter can likely name all fifty states, and which states they share borders with by the points of the compass.
The article drives home a very important point, a civically educated population has never been more important in the information age and global economy.
12
Francis Fukuyama touches on this point in "Political Order & Political Decay" when he cites other researchers' estimations that the business of being an informed U.S. citizen has become too byzantine and too time-consuming.
Still, we could (and should) have some sort of baseline other than vague founding mythoi and reverential but ultimately incurious invocations of a "Constitution" or "Declaration of Independence" that remain largely unread.
2
The Celtics came back from two 17-point deficits last night and won against the world champs. Any thing is possible and it is possible that Mueller will turn up the biggest scandal in the history of America and Trump will be forced to resign and defend himself from going to prison.
What goes around comes around and Fox will be finally put in its place and we can return to repairing what Trump has done to us.
6
Tsk tsk. So true that so much of the population is ignorant. But Tim, it has been thus forever. Read Mencken and Twain. Look at the 50s Red Scare. Ignorance is as reliably broad as the Mississippi River. There’s an old military saying that “at any given time, only 50 percent of the troops get the word.” The new wrinkle today is that rather than “the word,” people get misinformation through infinite channels. That brings up another American trait — gullibility. The great American P.T. Barnum described it best (as he monetized it.)
4
This analysis is entirely correct, and I don't think it's possible to overemphasize the influence of Murdoch's Fox News on incubating the political disease of which Trump is a symptom.
8
Another reason for the current situation - the press, or more specifically, broadcast journalism. When Fox News took to the airwaves in the late 90s, it didn't have to look far to find broadcasters already skilled at pandering to low information consumers. Local newscasts had been perfecting the basic formula for 20 years.
Call it "yellow tape" journalism. Instead of supplying information that would help viewers know about issues that might influence their voting behavior (tax increases in the state house, a new housing policy in city hall), local newscasts now feature (almost exclusively) stories about crime, with reporters standing in front of yellow crime scene tape, describing the latest murder, fire, car crash, etc. In major markets buying new traffic helicopters long ago replaced state house news bureaus, in pursuit of ratings from viewers afraid to turn away from reports of crime and disaster in the dystopian crimescape described by our President at his inauguration.
There is some change. As the cable news networks have largely copied each other, we now know that in many countries, crime scene tape comes in multiple colors. So, we are learning something...
4
The Founders originally established the Electoral College because they knew the average citizenry wasn't educated enough to understand the issues. As time went by, states realized people should have their own say and not depend on the EC, so instead of Congress abolishing the EC, each state simply made a pact to have the EC go along with the popular vote. The obvious problem is that they didn't also take care to be sure the populous is educated enough to make an intelligent voting decision. So now, the educated EC is slave to the uneducated populous instead of the other way around. This is a recipe for a catastrophe waiting to happen.
8
Hence why the republicans are against public education. They could not stay in power with an educated population.
10
So true. So obvious. And so important only if it is read as a mandate for ALL of us. We must all become a village of teachers and try to educate our way out of this mess. Constantly. Never mind the accusations of "didactic," "know-it-all," "tiresome." First, learn the stuff so our facts are correct, and then go forth and teach. It's the only way.
2
I will once again give you this quote from Mencken: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
9
The comments here frequently begin with "I have family members...." Usually this is followed by some examples of drinking the Kool Aid of some outrageous Trumpian behavior committed by otherwise sound people. Well, there seems to be a lot of that going around, and Texas has historically been at the epicenter. At least it was before the Roy Moore story broke down home in Alabamy.
So at the risk of redundancy, here's mine. I have two sisters with great families, wonderful husbands and kids, BUT.... They are devout believers and single-issue voters, and that issue is abortion. They voted for Trump only because of that. They would vote for the devil just for that. But then again, I repeat myself (apologies to Mark Twain).
Since the election everything about religion and politics has gone quiet in the family. Whenever even a whisper of political conversation wafts in the window, it's quickly followed by "Oh, we don't talk politics anymore." Or "We just don't pay attention to that; everything seems to be going well."
I'd love to get inside their heads just for a minute to see what's cooking in there. Do they secretly regret voting for the hideous thing in the White House? Are they comfortable with their Faustian bargain? Do they really just not look in that direction because it would force them to confront the nightmare they're created? I'll never know, and that's probably for the best.
19
I, too, have relatives for whom abortion is THE issue, the only issue. One relative, now deceased, was notorious for weaving the abortion issue into just about any topic. There's not much to be done with an obsessive person.
Thank you, this had to be said. The real threat to our democracy is ignorance. As an aside, a lot of Trump voters were educated before 1960, so I would give all voters a citizen test before they are eligible to cast a vote.
8
There were tests like that used in the south. Good idea!
1
" Students are hungry, in this turbulent era, for discussion of politics and government. But the educators are failing them. Civics has fallen to the side, in part because of the standardized test mania."
Is this the educators failing them? Or is it the politicized school boards who dictate the curriculum, standards, text books, etc. to the educators? And the lobbyists lobbying the school boards...on and on.
Please don't blame the educators. I guaranty you that 99% of educators care more about the importance of this than 99% of the readers who read your editorials.
6
Fox "News" and the other right-wing media (Limbaugh, Breitbart, Alex Jones, Laura Ingraham, Fox and Friends, Sean Hannity, et. al.) have done immeasurable damage to the truth. Fox News has more viewers than any other cable news station. Millions just soak up what they spout. Almost any time I go into a public location, Fox News is on the TV. And now it appears that Sinclair will basically take over local news stations almost everywhere. They are doing such a disservice to the American people, it's criminal. That is why we are in the post-truth age.
9
In my country Canada, we have the same kind of problem. Canadian-born citizens were asked to take the test that the immigrant has to take to get their citizenship. The majority failed the test. If it can make you Americans, feel better more American know the name of the first President of the USA (George Washington, 1789-1797) than Canadian know the name of the first Prime Minister of Canada (John A Macdonald, 1867-1873,1878-1891) according to a poll you was done by The Globe and Mail (Newspaper located in Toronto) in Canada and in the USA, a few year ago. And here too we have, to quote the comment from NYC tax payer: "Attitude over substance. Style over intelligence. Celebrity over morals." And yes also tweets.
2
Dunning-Kruger explains the GOP base...they LIKE being bathed in ignorance under the guise of "republican 'truth'", and despite all empirical evidence they will cling to that because civic duty has been replaced with a nihilistic win at all costs mentality...see the epic health care failure
3
I sympathize with you Mr. Egan. Now you know it is like for some of us to read the NY Times editorial page. Your rant mentioned: Trump, Trump and Trump. I agree with all that, but why did you omit mentioning another purveyor of fantasies, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders? Or Hillary Clinton? Please remember that it was her nomination that probably did more to get Trump elected than any other single factor.
Once again, a liberal NY Times columnist is being selective with the facts. That explains a lot of why the US is in its current predicament.
3
What Mr. Egan wrote was a column, not a news article. He was expressing his opinion and therefore was not required to write in an impartial fashion. Thus the lack of information pertaining to the matters you describe.
1
Not sure what Sanders and Clinton "fantasies" you are talking about.
Clinton's nomination brought out the reptilian thinking, the fake news and the collected weaponry of the right wing crazies. Comey didn't help. Her being a woman was a factor for some.
All in all it was a full-on attack and nobody paid much attention to her policy statements, her long record of accomplishment.
It was all about the long hatred of her by the right and the lies against her character. After all the many GOP investigations they found very little or nothing. That was the fantasy.
The question should be, perhaps, "Just what factors contribute to the gross ignorance and cynical meanness in the American public?". We really need to determine why there is such a barren desert in the area of critical thinking.
3
Thank you, this had to be said. The real threat to our democracy is ignorance. As an aside, a lot of Trump voters were educated before 1960, so I would give all voters a citizen test before they are eligible to cast a vote.
1
Correction: They CAN tell fact from fiction, but they just don't care as long as their side makes the claim.
4
So what you're sayin is that if all voters had taken civics classes then they would have voted for the candidate chosen by Deb Wassermann Schultz instead of Trump? I hope that isn't the point to your piece.
A truly educated electorate would have voted to throw the entire DNC into the stockade.
4
An educated electorate would not have nominated Trump.
The power of the extreme right..yes, they are fascists...comes in largest measure through Citizens United dark money ( thanks to Chief Justice Roberts) and it is used first to finance the takeover of local politicians and congressmen and then systematic gerrymandering and voter suppression managed by the bought pols follows. These extreme right donors like the Kochs have subverted the electoral process and thus our democracy. Only massive voter turnout can defeat these evil people.
4
Brilliant column Mr. Egan.
"I have seen the problem and it is us."
-- Pogo
3
in a nation in which 77% believe angels are real, 25% think the sun orbits the earth, and few vote, this is what you should expect.
If we don't eliminate delusional belief systems (religion) from public policy making we are going to continue down the road to gooberville - from which there seems to be no return
4
Is it not possible that some people just aren’t very bright, are very gullible and simply lack analytical skills, all of which they pass on to their progeny, and that there really isn’t much that societal institutions can do about such people?
2
I head to the gym each morning and listen to a lot of the "old white guys" [Disclaimer -- I'm old and I'm white, too] go on about the wonderfulness of Donnie-from-queens and how evil ClintonObamaWarrenLiberals are. For the past few days, a few guys have been wandering around talking about how Hillary should be impeached. I held back but today, I was wise enough to leave before I exploded. "Mueller is done for" -- they discovered he got some of the $135 million the Russians gave Hillary --- "I don't understand why Hillary isn't being impeached" . . . "You know that Bill Clinton has sex slaves on an island in the Carribean . . . ." and on and on. Where does this ignorance come from?
5
Yesterday on the public radio station here I heard a discourse on why “experts” should not be relied on in making policy. Both the interviewer and the interviewee agreed that too much credence was given to “experts.” There were lots of other factors that should be taken into account, both said.
What I was thinking was, yeah? Like what? What other “factors” should influence a decision, aside from knowing what you’re talking about?
Gak.
4
I read the despair in Mr. Egan's words. We are lost. We are beyond redemption. This American experiment has failed because somehow the idea of "education" became mixed up in the universal condemnation of "elites" by people too stupid to know they should be striving to be "elite" themselves. When personal feeling about an idea has become equivalent to truth, we are without a beacon in the darkness that is the Trump administration. The United States of America, 1776-2017. RIP.
4
The problem is more than simply ignorant citizens. It is also that many citizens do not care about the Constitution or what it takes to live under it. Many folks are very happy with jungle rules: crush the losers and to the winners go the spoils.
1
Weeding through outright lies is difficult.
Face value is always quite telling.
real estate developer, beauty contest judge, reality television host, creator
of a fake university, admitted sexual assailant, tax cheat, never elected narcissistic fabricator.
These are all indicators.
2
Don't disrespect my president boiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
Finally, someone asks a question about what happens on the receiving end of propaganda. If they really appreciate that question, the pundits and corporate media would have realized it is stupid to fill the air with their opinions and call their unresponsive audience stupid.
The writer should read his (or the paper’s) headline of this editorial. It says We’re with Stupid, not we’re with Americans who should be better educated.
Stupid is permanent.
1
It is correct that the problem is not with the Russians anymore than it was with Wiki Leaks who released TRUE e-mails, documents and videos that the "liberal" press celebrated, because these were true news and the NY Times and major media insisted that "people have a right to know" even Top Secret classified documents that could cause the deaths of thousands. The "liberal" media did not give a hoot about whether these were obtained legally or the nationality of the source when the content benefitted their ideologies and bank accounts. The problem for Egan and the rest of the major bought off by the 1% media is that Americans actually are NOT STUPID! The people can easily detect and understand the deep malice and elite contempt for the common people (who have been impoverished by decades of offshoring and labor markets flooded by mass immigration of slave-wage labor) communicated by Clinton's statements to Wall Street CEOs wishing for "open borders", the labeling of half of America as "baskets of despicables" and the constant slanderous branding of anyone who does not agree with the editorial policy of the NY Times or the Democrat party as racists. xenophobes, misogamists, anti Semitic, bigots, intolerant, insensitive, disturbing ............. .
2
While I think it wrong to require citizens to pass a test of any kind in order to vote, I completely agree that civics should be re-instituted in high school curricula. And might I add, with some contemporary political perspective. One of the reasons young people (young voters) roll their eyes at this stuff is that they have recognized that there is an ever-widening chasm between how government is supposed to work and how it actually works. If you just read them the founding fathers, they'll think (rightly so) that you're trying to pull the wool over their eyes. Should we talk about how the branches of government were designed to function? You bet. But we should also talk about the challenges to those functions in the contemporary political arena.
It would also be helpful for public universities to make civics a requirement for undergraduates. Oh but wait, all the graduate students will be dropping out because they can't afford to eat under the House's tax plan, so they'll be no one to teach it. Oh well.
2
Once, while teaching Introduction to Creative Writing, I talked about using past history to talk about modern politics. I used Arthur Miller's The Crucible as an example. I explained how the author used the Salem Witch Trials to talk about McCarthy's Communist witch hunt. I found out that not one of the students in the class knew what the Salem Witch Trials were nor who Joseph McCarthy was or what he did. My creative writing class that day turned into a history lesson.
And...I've lost count of how many Americans have asked me which side won the Civil War.
28
Looking at the country right now, it seems like we’ve overestimated the “win” of the Union in that war.
The problem may be more fundamental than civic literacy. Information about basic civics is nearly as accessible as fake news and disinformation. Most information consumers possess the basic skills required to seek out that information, retain it, and involve it in the interpretation of current events. The notion that anyone who possesses these skills will actually put them to use presupposes a universal belief in a real distinction between fact and fiction, and a kind of moral preference for the former over the latter. The same moral disagreements that influence our interpretations and conclusions (often leading to drastically divergent understandings between equally informed citizens) may influence our desire and motivation to become informed in the first place. In order to cultivate real information literacy, consumers have to care more about the truth than they do about winning.
1
I have heard it put like this: "No one likes the smartest kid in the room.' A lot of Americans are incurious, suspicious of learning, scornful of what they consider Big Words. They are comfortable with his affect and his attitudes. He doesn't read anything; they see no need to. He says out loud what they have all been thinking for years; the racist, sexist invective doesn't shock them, it confirms their long-held beliefs. At last someone is standing with and for them. I weep for the Republic.
46
"He doesn't read anything; they see no need to. He says out loud what have all been thinking for years; the racist, sexist invective doesn't shock them, it confirms their long-held beliefs."
Bingo! You hit it exactly. As one commentator put it, "He hates the same people they hate."
Invest in the future, Fully Fund Public Education.
31
Public schools have also been coopted by the corporatist thesis that they exist no to educate citizens, but merely to provide labor. Because that's their only economically justifiable mandate, there's little time left for developing democratically necessary traits.
11
"If you expect a nation to be ignorant and free , you expect what never was and can never be."
- Thomas Jefferson
28
We know what it takes to educate our public, but we have leaders and elected officials who claim there is no money available for public education, while allocating trillions of tax dollars for endless wars of opportunity. We know that our infrastructure is failing, but nobody will allocate funds to rebuild, even as they pass legislation for massive tax relief for those who least need it. We have leaders who want to shut down most essential government services, while privatizing many of them for the benefit of their supporters---at the expense of all other working American men and women. We basically have a government direct by and designed exclusively for the benefit of the .1%. This will not change without campaign finance reform (nothing but publicly funded races for all national offices), term limits, reversal of gerrymandered districts, and a law (such as Australia's) that will penalize those who do not vote. Those who currently control our government (both parties) will never let go of their power and control without a fight----and they will most likely reject all of these things that we know would return our nation to a more fair and open democracy. Sadly, their refusal to do what is best for America will only speed the process towards the second American revolution, which will not be pretty.
14
There are two intertwined and underlying problems in the US that contibuted to the election of Trump:
1- Education is funded by zip code.
If you buy a house in the US, the first thing the RE Agent will mention is the school system. Ask
a family where they are looking to buy and the school system is at the top of their concerns.
Why is that? Racism is endemic and school financing is exclusive rather than inclusive.
2- Voting is voluntary.
It is easy not to vote. The lines are long. Working people need to take off work to do it.
Why is that? Racism is endemic and makes voting exclusive rather than inclusive.
In Australia, schools are financed at the state level, and voting is a civic duty punishable by a fine if you fail to turn up on a Saturday Voting Day, when most people have the day off, or mail in an absentee ballot. Every town has duplicate multiple voting logs. You
need no id, just your name and address, and when you take your ballot, your name gets crossed off in a log book which is later cross referenced. The process is efficient and the lines move quickly. If your name is not crossed off in one of the town log books, you’re sent a letter and asked to pay a fine.
Remember, Murdock started in Australia, and has media interests here, but the quality and the way that education is organized, and the fact that voting is not optional,
does not highlight his brand.
20
Great analysis. Particularly astute reference to Murdoch. One guess who filed suits and lobbied ceaselessly to change US media laws re: ownership concentration (print, radio, TV) and fairness clauses. And this week it continues and got worse. We done it to ourselves.
Why the blame on racism? It sounds more like an economic issue to me. Minorities aren't the only working people. They're not the only poor people in poor schools either.
1
Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, negotiated late in the George Washington administration, signed by President John Adams and ratified unanimously by the US Senate states:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…."
21
One of the features of the make-the 1-per cent-richer tax plan that the Republicans just passed in the House is to deny teachers a mere $250.00 tax break when they pay for student supplies. The bill also taxes tuition benefits, thereby preventing everyone but the wealthy to pursue graduate degrees. This says just about everything we need to know about what has happened to public schooling in the United States. It seems conspiratorial -- the plutocrats who have bought these politicians want a dumb and undiscerning population, which they can then bleed through the poverty industry (for profit schools, payday loans, compounding credit card interest) and can exploit more easily because they are too poor and enervated to pay or make time to improve their skills and find better paid work. In a Republican idiocracy, education is a low priority whereas tax breaks for the non-working wealthy and military spending are high priorities. And uneducated whites vote Republican more so than any other group. It's a vicious circle.
27
we elected a beauty pageant judge with fake hair/fake tan/fake university/fake wrestling/fake tv show...it wasn't a mistake, it's the grand finale of capitalism in American...Tv is reality in America
32
You identify a genuine problem that is not getting the press exposure that it deserves. Of course, it is a lot easier to "govern" an uninformed electorate than one trained to think for critically. James Madison recognized the fundamental need for educating all classes of Americans to ensure a well-functioning democracy. Many of us have long taken noted the anti-intellectual streak in American politics and the assaults on education and diatribes against "liberal" higher education. Education favors intellectualism, an awareness of the inter-connectedness of society more broadly, and a sense of social responsibility. The Republican Party have long pursued the weakening of public education, an independent press, and pilloried institutions of higher education for not conforming. Everything seems to be working according to their strategy to eliminate the possibility of dissent.
Alas, their success will spell doom for the America we once knew and of which we could be proud. Education in the meaning of genuine THINKING, a self-critical attitude, and the courage to think outside the box: that is what James Madison had in mind and what I mean.
10
Sadly one fundamental fact remains 50% are below average - thus mere fluctuations of polity lead to unfortunate under-performance.
6
The goal should be to raise, not lower, the baseline of average.
1
I have long stated that if the Republicans are truly committing to voting restrictions, they should begin by restricting everyone from the voting booth who cannot pass the same civics lesson demanded of immigrants. Right on the spot, at the polling place. I predict more than 50 percent of Americans would be disqualified, most of them conservatives who are so busy reading the bible they have no time to read about history and government. There should be at least a minimum level of knowledge before a fellow American pulls a lever that can change the course of history.
11
Shouldn't we be vetting our political candidates with at least the same rigor as we do a high school social studies teacher, local police officer or federal agent? I would bet money that Trump wouldn't have passed a basic 6th grade exam on the Revolutionary War. How can we let someone so ignorant have the most powerful job on the planet without so much as a quiz on what he knows about our country's founding principles? I'm so embarrassed by him not only in front of the rest of the world, but in front of my own children.
11
Your line near the opening of your article says it all: "We’re getting played because too many Americans are ill equipped to perform the basic functions of citizenship."
And to add fright to fear my guess is our citizenry feels absolutely no responsibility for knowing about the functioning of our democracy.
9
Mr. Egan is spot on, but let's not forget or dilute the decades-long campaign by the far right to dumb down critical thinking among the electorate with its deliberate brainwashing through the methodical influence of propaganda outlets like Limbaugh and Faux Nuze, among others - it really has had a major impact on the American public.
7
Yes! But I want to point out one minor concern. On the citizenship test, "State's rights" is accepted as one of the causes of the Civil War.
3
Congratulations Mr. Egan! a well written and reasoned piece about the state of American politics today.
American voters are confused/lost by decades of fake news and false arguments about the real issues. American democracy became the art of deception.
5
There has never been a better time in all of History for most of Humanity to learn about that History and their History as well as the truths and the facts as well as all the knowledge , wonders and accomplishments achieved and the future that lies before us.
It's all there for most to see, listen, view learn and read and is the greatest repository of knowledge the World has ever had.
It's the Internet and a wonder of the World.
It is not a Minefield, full of falsehood, special interests, bias and bad...for Most it is a Mindfield...it's navigation (or lack thereof) conducted by minds full of ias, opinions suiting beliefs seeking succour and finding a solace of likeminded and familiar wrongs, misconceptions and mistaken beliefs.
It is a tool in the wrong hands steering the wrong minds to a false destination, and can be a dangerous tool.
We just need to train those who seek Their Answers to seek The Answers and by thus, to find the Truth, Fact, Evidence and the real reality that lies within and without in mutual assured balance in and of fact.
More people than ought to know better or bother to try harder and seek the things that are as obvious as the truths that support and strengthen them into being, need to navigate the Internet without bringing their Mindfield into play.
More people that will admit imagine or try, need to get Driving Lessons and top up on Common Sense and Open Minded thinking whilst they do.
They and all of us will be so much the better for it.
What's the first thing an educated person learns? Generally how little they know.
If they don't know something they stop, listen and learn, and say wow I did not know that.
The ignorant are different. They have a vast treasury of a priori knowledge. They know everything so why should they listen and learn? Admit they were wrong? Ha!
Ah well. Not just in politics but in life itself the truth will out. Believe in lies and reject instruction? Fine! The Trump supporters are the ones who get hurt the most from the current scheme. As some guy said of them on election night, I hope they all lose their jobs and get addicted to opiates.
I wish everybody well but as I read somewhere, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
9
Thanks, you are so right!
1
If I were a Republican in charge, why would I possibly want to support civics and education? Educated people vote.
11
How can we teach our children to distinguish fake news from the real when our president either can't or won't. Granted, too many Americans are largely uninformed and ignorant about political matters, but this is not the time in our history for them to start paying attention. Watching today's presidency, they are not going to learn anything about the separation of power that we're supposed to have or anything about parliamentary procedure. No, this is not a good time to look at our national governance to learn about democracy.
See:
RevolutionOfReason.com
TheRogueRevolutionist.com
3
The dumbing down of the electorate has been a slow and, I think, deliberate process. There are reasons why the political class, republicans especially, don't support public education generally and occasionally target critical thinking specifically. They are threatened by people who know real facts and can think. Trump, McConnell and the GOP are sustained by ignorant and unthinking voters. A simple litmus test to weed out such voters would serve the country well.
7
I had a good education, mostly. I learned to love literature and history. I grew up outside of D.C. and had access to history and arts. I learned critical thinking and facts.
It has been clear to me after working with much younger people that they didn't learn the things I did. Historical and literary references and grammar and spelling mean nothing to them. Deductive reasoning is foreign to them.
So after having text books which eliminate much of recorded history from them, downplay science and banning books, we have a dumbed down society who only knows about celebrities and fake celebrity.
And we have the dumbest president ever. No intellectual curiosity, no empathy, no historical accuracy. Worse than that, no knowledge of the constitution. What he lacks in knowledge he makes up for in greed and spreading false facts.
This is where we are. This is how we disappear. The rest of the world is moving forward. We are regressing.
Those sci-fi books and movies that portrayed us as a vacuous and clueless society are coming true.
Mixing right wing religious fervor with legislation robs us of what we need to guide our growth and encourage it. Fake news and facts blurs us from what we need to know and do.
This has to stop or it will end us. Trump and the Russians will win as we sink below the level of a civilized world leader to a banana republic. We must fight back.
12
Could Donald Trump pass the U.S. Citizen test?
3
"We have met the enemy, and they is us!" - Walt Kelly (Pogo Possum)
7
Yes, the article is frightening because it shows that one person-one vote democracy may be quite imperfect, specially if there can be close 1-1 ties. Remember that Hitler was elected by democratic elections even though he also had the strong support of violent mobs. It cannot happen again? Or it can?
If we value diversity of opinions we need more than two parties to have democracy working better.
2
Excellent article!
Send it to Bill Gates whose latest donation to our education system for new and innovative learning could include exactly what you point out.The constitution,the bill of rights where and when and who .Our kids need to see
“Stupid is as stupid does”.Forest Gump told us all.
3
Thank you for this. There's a reason why plantation owners refused to allow their slaves to be educated. When people are taught to think for themselves they are much harder to control. They will push back when you are violating their rights.
This Republican tax plan wouldn't be happening if our citizens were taught to be more active in our civic duty. Our education system has been deliberately dumbed down to make us easier to control. This has been a long war, waged against us since Reagan, and Trump is just the fruition of this plan. He's the idiot with the pen who will sign anything.
3
More: http://www.macleans.ca/politics/america-dumbs-down/
The article states educators have failed students; however, teachers are not the ones setting the CCSS (Common Core State Standards). Teachers do not decide what courses students must or must not take. This is up to the stake holders (i.e. community members and parents) Be the change you want to see, and advocate for those changes in your district.
3
Republicans continue their attack on our educational system by proposing that graduate student tuition and student loan interest payments be made taxable. Discouraging higher education by these measures will provide the R’s with more of the non-critical thinkers that are so central to their remaining in power.
4
It isn't what you know that is the problem. And it isn't what you don't know that is the problem. The problem is what you don't know that you don't know and what you "know" that really is false that are the problems. And it isn't just government and civics, it is also logic and critical thinking that are not being taught. And Betsy DeVoss is not helping this situation.
I am reminded of the late night hosts who go out on the streets of NYC and ask passers by basic questions about our system of government, etc. The responses are both funny and sad at the same time. Citizens SHOULD have to pass a basic test to vote.
I doubt that Donald Trump himself could have told you the three branches of federal government before he was elected. I say this because he exhibits so little understanding of their functions and powers, checks and balances.
3
A society can continue to be well regulated and prosperous if a small, educated leadership class is influencing governance and media. This is not the case now that social media and its manipulateurs can provide echo cocoons where all is cozy and information exchange with those of other opinions is eliminated.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo
"A nation gets the government it deserves." de Maistre
2
So much right and so much wrong in this piece. Civics vanished when a real discipline history became social studies. This was not the doing of the right. Indeed civics education is stronger in conservative states. We are ignorant but it is an American not a Republican problem.
Blaming foreigners, like Russians, is a lot simpler.
2
Brilliant, absolutely right, spot on: we need desperately to teach our children civics and the basic ideas in the Constitution. There are also on line classes for non-lawyers who are interested in refreshing (or perhaps, if they are young adults) learning for the first time about the Constitution in an accessible, plainly spoken and plainly presented way. (One such course is offered on line by Stanford Continuing Studies, and I recommend it even though I am NOT a Stanford alumna. Please everyone: take a few moments with this document, it excellence and its (since amended) flaws. And thank you Timothy Egan for this column.
4
There was a time when the citizenry was willing to pay for the education of itself. But the so-called tax revolutions of the 80's fueled by the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan and his ilk, took down the basic funding of our educational systems and has never been restored. Not able to just raise fees, as what happened in our public universities, elementary and secondary schools were required to make the dubious decisions of what would stay and what would go in their curriculum. Sadly, what has been sacrificed through this slow forty year decay, is a citizenry prepared and equipped to confront the fraying of our democracy.
4
I've been saying in various forums for a long time that the lack or absence of education puts our country and democracy at risk.
Public schools and all schools should be required to teach civics and government classes as Mr. Egan advocates.
An ill-informed and uninformed populace cannot sustain a democracy. With an ill-informed and uninformed citizenry we are at greater risk of an authoritarian or worse political structure and government.
Especially states and local school districts must strengthen or reinstitute civics and government education as part of the primary and secondary schools curriculum.
4
I have long blamed corporate America for using television to dumb down the public in an attempt to sell products. They have succeeded as evidenced by this commentary. I won't waste your time enumerating the proofs. The USA is on a downward slide and we need to consider how public education can help reverse it. After all education for our kids IS compulsory--so that's the best venue to get at them.
3
not a downward slide, but a fall from a great height - and we have hit the rocks
YES!!!
When someone refutes scientific research with comments like, "Who decides what the facts are anyway?" (My neighbor-who has a college degree). This is an issue of American stupidity.
3
We ask so much from our schools and teachers but too often don't provide them with the resources to carry out their mission. Unfortunately, the result is that too many Americans are simply illiterate in American history, economics, and our political tradition. Too often, our media do not meet professional standards. Finally, the Internet blogs and social media don't meet their potential for providing meaningful or accurate information.
1
Thank you Timothy Egan for writing about 'fake news' and our Electoral College president. But I feel we're missing the bigger picture here.
Can we remember how difficult and bizarre it was during our adolescence? What we knew most about, the confusion going on in our heads, dictated how we saw the world, changing moment-to-moment, highly emotional, defensive about everything, like a new driver with one foot on the accelerator and the other riding the brake. It was an exhilarating mess of a roller coaster ride.
Yet, we made it through, surviving, even prospering as we chose.
Is not the same developmental process at work now on our collective consciousness? It's not been long since humanity has been able to see and hear one another in real-time, for the first time in history. We're beginning to learn who we are as a unified species, interdependent and mutually needed for best outcomes. Every untoward circumstance reveals the 'better way' of human unity.
Trust the process: as was true for each of us, so also is it true for us all. We know 'stupid' cause we've been through that already.
1
I like your 'onward & upward' take on humanity, but in the realm of what Tim Egan is writing about, there's been a painfully obvious and marked DEvolution in the American socio-political psyche since 1980. At a societal level, we're been largely going backwards, as a direct result of plutocrats' lying successes over those nearly four decades.
Thanks for your thoughts, John. I agree that the recent past seems devolutionary, but so did most of adolescence. Now, in mid-70s, I can honestly ask, "What can happen that does not contribute to an advancing civilization, whether individually or societal?" Lying, even a tsunami of lies, falls under the David Byrne axiom, "Saying it don't make it so!" Cheers.
Citizenship responsibility? Forget that. We have new iPhones to play with, new shows to watch on Netflix, and soccer games to attend. When we want news, we'll go to our Facebook pages and find the stories that reinforce our point of view.
3
If education were, in fact, the problem, as Timothy Egan suggests, I would be more optimistic than I am that the problem could be solved.
Unfortunately, it turns out the more education a Republican has acquired, the LESS likely he is to believe in anthropogenic climate change. It would appear, then, that education makes Republicans even stupider than they would otherwise be. On top of that, they all watch Fox News which has been shown to make its viewers less well informed than people who watch no news at all.
The country would be better off, in other words, if Republicans were deprived of both education and TV. That would be a good solution to our problems, but hardly a practical one.
1
iCivics games created by Sandra Day O’Connor. I’m going to take some time to play some useful video games with my kids. And, we are all going to take the immigration test. Fingers crossed that we actually pass!!
2
I realized how stupid we Americans had become when the Casey Anthony was acquitted and all those fools outside the courthouse kept chanting "Appeal! appeal!" and all I could think was "didn't they learn in civics class that there is no appeal from a criminal acquittal?" Apparently I'm not the only person feeling this way. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor realized that we, as a people, are practically in a crisis mode when it comes to educating our people with respect to civics and created a foundation to teach civics which has a strong on-line program. But, I despair for the future of the United States if our population doesn't began to learn the fundamentals of our government structure of checks and balances between the judicial, legislative, and executive branches along with learning the power of critical thinking.
4
Yes many people in this country are ignorant, and it's really scary. Fortunately, I come from a line of intelligent reasonable people, and I at least feel comfortable among my own. And I am becoming more elitist daily now because of necessity.
My social life is also coming down to Are you stupid, or are you smart? My tolerance for idiots is getting lower by the minute.
Fortunately, intellegence has worked in our favor so we are all wealthy enough to shield ourselves against the morons. Too bad. But it's coming to that. No more patience with people who don't know enough to come in out of the rain. Let them eat white bread.
If you are dumb enough to vote for Donald and his fellow dummies against your self-interest, so sorry.
If you are dumb enough not to know that junk food, candy, and sugar will ruin your health sorry. Don't cry for you, Argentina.
Survival of the smartest and fittest.
1
The problem with dumb people is that they are good at reproducing (i.e. by omission, or worse by choice eschew contraceptives) and thus will soon overwhelm the rest of us.
1
More propaganda from the smug, elitist lamestream media. I'm homeschooling to keep my kids out of government schools, so they can become real Americans.
1
good luck with that
3
That sounds pretty smug and elitist to me!
3
Your opinion piece, "We're with stupid" states that Americans think states' rights, rather than slavery, caused the Civil. The HMS Citizenship Test and preparatory materials list both slavery and states rights as a correct answer. The comparison to John F. Kelly is also incorrect since his statement incorrectly was premised on the inability of the Union to compromise. I do agree with you that most people are just as clueless as he is.
2
The stupificaation of the American electorate is indeed the point, and ultimately the mindful goal, just as the transfer of economic assets to the few and disenfranchising the rest is in fact the mindful goal.
Neither process is a result of happenstance or accident.
2
Mostly a great argument, but just to be clear: it isn't educators who are failing, or responsive for test-mania: it's legislators.
2
For years the least intelligent of us have been having the most kids, and passing their ignorance, bad behavior and lack of initiative to the next generation.
The egg is hitting the fan. It's no more a question of if or when, it's a question of how bad it will get and how soon it will become impossible.
Tell that to the Republicans who do everything in their power to defund Planned Parenthood, refuse to fund sex education in public schools and continue to limit access to abortion and the morning after pill.
Egan brings up the need for fact checking. Well I am all for fact checking just as long as its done from a position of political neutrality. Thank you.
1
Sorry but facts have nothing to do with political parties. As inconvenient as some may find it, facts are facts, regardless. And just to be clear, if it's not a fact it's either a lie or an opinion.
5
how could people go through life unable to tell fact from fiction, believing even the most outlandish fables as long as they come from trusted sources, holding superstitions and old wives' tales above science, or knowing cripplingly little about the actual world they live in?
how is this even possible?
religious indoctrination from a young age. often, evangelical holy roller madrasses.
and yet they believe we are, or shoud be, a Christian nation, making it possible for Trump to capitalize on a promise of saying Merry Christmas again. what has that got to do with the price of eggs in China?
I'm sure this went over bigly on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.
2
Decades ago in the segregated South, “literacy tests” were sometimes administered to black voters to prevent them from voting. In this modern age, EVERY voter should be required to pass such a test before we allow them the privilege of voting. As far as I am concerned, it can be an open-book test; that will at least force the voter to look things up (e.g., name the three branches of the federal government). The future of the nation and, as Trump demonstrates almost daily, the world are simply too important to be entrusted to those ignorant of the basic workings of government and civics.
We could of course make it easier to vote for those so qualified, as most European nations do, by not holding elections on the first Tuesday (after November 1) in November. (Primary elections are also on Tuesdays.) It is appalling that our voter turnout is well below that of other nations.
Lastly, any election that is supported by taxpayer funds, such as primary elections, should be open to any eligible registered voter, not just those registered as members of a particular political party. This would mitigate the extremism currently embedded in primary elections of both parties.
6
I taught high school US Government and US History. Education's not the problem. The problem is greed.
What is our motivation here? To be rich? Sure, that's our 'dream'. A selfish, personal dream of material wealth. Isn't every Senator a millionaire? And all the government folks move on out and join the corporate world, with insider knowledge, and make ever higher amounts. That's our creed.
No, the really smart and cunning people (or maybe cunning people with smart lawyers) have taken over. We're morally bankrupt; cause we want to be rich. Lucre wins here. That's exactly why we have this President.
Politically lazy, yes, but much worse, spiritually lost, and not really trying to get better. So, we'll fall as far as we can, and then, hopefully, rise to new heights, of compassion, community, and real, live, equality.
1
In an age where you can look up anything on your personal devices, people don't retain information; unfortunately, they are also too distracted to vet the swirling falsehoods that are churning all over the internet.
4
We should start referring to the lies as "fake truth".
1
When this nation elected George W. Bush to a second term, despite a disastrous first term, I realized that the Electorate is too ignorant and too emotional to make a rational decision. And that, I argued, posed an existential threat to this Nation. Then Obama got elected, and the reason was not an enlightened Electorate. Trump's election went beyond the assumption of Electorate ignorance. It clearly demonstrated the power of the undercurrents of racism and bigotry. It proved that despite The North winning the Civil War, and despite the Civil Rights achievements of 50 years ago, we are still living in a North/South divide and have no intention of becoming one Nation Under Law! So, Roy Moore can defy the Constitution and yet be elected. And Trump can trash the Constitution and be worshipped. Democracy in an ignorant nation will inevitably become self destructive.
2
Trump is not a product of fooling anyone. He measures what the customer wanted, and gave them the disloyal, dishonest attack on the other half of the country they asked for. The tea party is Trump, but for real and on steroids.
1
As long as the ignorant and/or self-serving plutocrats are running the government, at many levels, we will continue to descend into the abyss. The ignorant and willfully misinformed who prop up Trump & his ilk will continue to attack the very values this Nation was founded upon and thereby drive it into the ground. Do we need a catastrophe of monumental proportions to make the ignorant anti-government Trump lovers appreciate the good that is government?
How can the ignorant, uninformed and misinformed be educated when they disdain education? I hope those who have the ability to fight Trump and his backers don't give up hope, the longer we're in this Trumplandia morass, the harder it will be to get out.
I have often quipped that a person should have to pass a test before becoming a parent, voting in an election, etc. If there were a way to do that and still ensure a vibrant democracy, I'd espouse the notion, we're coming up on that time. I dare say there are probably people who have been placed under protective guardianships who know more about maintaining our democracy than the liar in chief and some of his followers. Trump's attitude is not healthy for the Nation nor is it amusing.
2
I want a t-shirt that says that. Its genius!
I'm reading and agreeing with this inside my digital safe space.
1
This is why Betsy DeVos is the least of my worries in the Trump administration. How much lower could our education system go? Americans can't even be citizens anymore! I work in a junior college and let me tell you, these
"students" come in with about a 6th grade level of preparedness. No place to go but up!
"Nearly one in three Americans cannot name a single branch of government. When NPR tweeted out sections of the Declaration of Independence last year, many people were outraged. They mistook Thomas Jefferson’s fighting words for anti-[covfefe] propaganda."
I don't even. I can't even.
But then, the DHS would easily mistake it for separatist terrorist propaganda today.[1] Try reciting it at a TSA airport grope-gate today—safe bet whether you're a paying Pre-Check racket member or not that you'll be in cuffs in a black site. And then groped again there.
[1] After all, it was. The whole tar-and-feather John Malcolm thing? Yeah.
Civics courses - the user manuals for representative government.
Nice piece. Welcome to our pre-facist state.
In fact, there are many people who had to study and pass a test to obtain a ‘license’ to become a citizen. They’re the recent immigrants who applied for and obtained citizenship in the United States as adults.
My Jewish grandmother from Russia, who came here at th dawn of the 20th century as a barely literate peasant from a shtetl, fleeing death at the hands of anti-Semites on horseback, knew more about our history, the Constitution and the basic structure of our government and our laws than the willfully ignorant current President and his sycophantic cult of redneck ‘patriots.’
How many of those ‘patriotic’ sanctimonious gun-waving, bible-thumping, race baiting ‘citizens’ could pass the citizenship exam? Not many. And here I’m talking not only about the actual written exam - I mean the test of membership in an educated, reasoning and rational democratic society that every one of us ought to be striving to pass each and every day.
2
You're so right sir. There can never be such a thing as a "president" Donald Trump, or Senate candidate Roy Moore unless there is a critical mass of slobbering idiots to willingly lap up their nonsensical bile. Education is the only answer. I don't know how to get people to switch off their right wing infotainment outlets, but it's essential that we support those few remaining sources of high quality journalism, such as the NY Times, and especially TV and radio like PBS television and NPR. I give monthly to NPR as it's quality is so high, and it's so accessible to anyone.
2
The US anti-intellect brigade has won out to all of our detriment. No public education was never golden and perfect. But it was valued as an inherent important part of democracy in the USA. Sure it was sexist, racist, pro-mediocre, pro-American football and various ideologies that were harmful. But the fractures and take-over by the Devos profiteers is surely much worse than a well supported imperfect public system. The union busting since Reagan is just ridiculous when you take a look at how much wealth the CEO´s and people like Trumps, Romney, hedge fund vampires are siphoning off from the general public. Pay people a living wage for decent public school jobs, unions are important and not evil, change your channel from Fox, they have stolen from the people of the USA. Are you even aware Fox viewers that Murdoch the profiteer off of your dumb idolatry was made a US citizen through a corrupt measure to enable him to be a station owner... Please quit being so dumb. It really feels so helpless as if you suckers for the GOP who are in the upper middle class and below are like abused spouses who stay to get thoroughly whupped.
1
The larger question should be, is Trump a prerequisite to stupid or the end result of stupid. A large group of Americans have little concept of the requirements of citizenship, not freedoms but requirements. Schools used to teach civics. I'm not sure if they still do, but judging from the current political climate it would seem not.
2
Trump is killing truth, reality, decency, and both the GOP symbolic and literal elephants. He has accomplished more than any other first year President. It's just that it's all bad. He has filled more Stygian stables with his own signature brand of manure than any Hercules could begin to clear. Five and a half lies a day? He's just finding his stride.
1
Mr. Egan, you’re avoiding the real problem. Not voter stupidity, but big money paying for US politics.
Trump fills his cabinet with corporate plutocrats. Hillary had to raise millions in speeches to big banks that caused the big crash.
Roy Moore got campaign donations from Nazi, anti Semitic, segregationist groups who want the South to secede and form a biblical nation, reported by Huff Post and TPM.
The US delivers its politics into the hands of the rich. This removes input to policy from the citizens, who then fight for the crumbs left over by the elites on taxes, jobs, health care, education. Corporate sponsored public relations set up the center of our politics.
We have the world’s most profitable election system, same as its health care.
You want educated voters? Compare how other democracies elect leaders using public funding, limits on private money, and bans on manipulative, costly campaign ads---a crucial factor.
In the US it’s deemed unAmerican to interfere with profits, the public be damned. The message is 'big govt' removes our 'Freedoms'. Our politics is a protection racket run by big money who simply threaten candidates who don’t play ball--they'll run sombody against them who will.
Al Gore told CNN--“ Our democracy has been hacked by big money long before Putin hacked our democracy.”
Don’t displace blame to voters manipulated by our plutocrats for profit and power. My question---Is the topic of campaign finance forbidden to NYT columnists?
2
What worries me is that Trump may just be a bumbling fool that others have used for their own benefit (Putin and the money-grabbers). I do think he now may be guilty of conspiracy and obstruction but mainly from stupidity. There isn't much going on in that little head and flattery will win his heart and your chance to use his influence for your personal benefit. His Son-in-Law may be the worst of the whole lot!
6
Another coastal elite calling people stupid. We know how this turns out.
6
The "people" you refer to don't read the NY Times. And a lot of them are at least as ignorant as Bruni suggests.
I quickly re-read the piece and didn't find the word "stupid" once. Are you saying it's OK for 1 in 3 to not be able to name a single branch of government or 1 in 3 not able to pass the citizenship exam? If you have a better adjective to describe these people please share. Living in a democracy should be hard work - having to constantly stay informed and employ critical thinking skills to ascertain truth from lie is not for the lazy or faint of heart. Not to worry though - once this current nightmare is over we "elitists" will start the work of cleaning up the mess that is left and we won't disturb you from your important work of blindly dismissing any information you don't like or understand....
4
When others make the wrong vote, they make the wrong vote, simple as that. Cool story blaming others for their votes though. That plays well with the people with stupid.
Almost never mentioned is the fact that Rupert Murdoch allows this misinformation to spew from his outlets, in concert. The Post, WSJ and of course our esteemed institution Fox News have all virtually ignored the Russia investigation, except to call for Mueller's resignation. Both he and his sons are not ignorant. They're just so overweeningly greedy that they're prepared to jettison the truth, undermine justice and stoke division in order to maintain their wealth. Never forget that Murdoch and Trump speak on an almost daily basis; he is the whisperer in Trump's ear and the propaganda machine for his lies. More than perhaps anyone else, he helped create and perpetuate Trump, and the ignorance this article bemoans.
15
Ignorance abounds, and we are all responsible.
7
Forget about civics class--the "Christians" won't let us teach the founding story and laws of the country if it isn't made perfectly clear that this has always been a Christian country--even though it hasn't been and isn't now. A few lessons on the diverse folks who came here seeking freedom from religion might help some of their children see why freedom of and from religion was so crucial to the Founders. And it's not just civics--my son's friend got to skip a science unit on animal adaptions to their environments because his mother didn't believe in evolution--I'm sure her minister was well-grounded in basic science before interfering with his congregants' education.
And now we have Betsy DeVos in charge of education, so don't look for freedom of thought or an accurate account of America's founding documents any time soon. Thanks so much Republicans--the Christian Taliban is alive and well and making us ever dumber.
44
Mr. Egan is right. Every high school student should have to pass the citizenship test. All citizens legally allowed to vote should be required to vote or face tax penalties. Democracy is hard work. It's time to stop coddling the loafers.
20
now there's something you'd think conservatives could get behind, since this is just how it was done 50 years ago.
but it's so much easier to push their know nothing agenda if the voters are awol or brain dead, distracted by reality tv, prayer, and video games.
2
Again Timothy Egan's observations are spot on. As Egan notes, American education is largely responsible for the ignorance that marks the land and rightly points to standardized testing as one of the main reasons for that. But there is another culprit.
That other is that business values now dominate how we think about and structure our public schooling. Principals are regularly referred to as CEOs and in some cases parents, and students, are dubbed clients. Rather than producing critical thinking citizens our schools instead have been vocational institutions that pride themselves on developing entrepreneurs. While there certainly is a place for entrepreneurship in our society it should not replace our educational system's obligation to nurture young people's ability to understand the political system they inhabit, to appreciate the needs of and threats to, that system and be able to consider the necessary solutions that need to be applied in order for this country to move forward.
21
America seems well on the way to winning a Darwin Award.
11
So true. There is passion aplenty in our country, but the lack of basic knowledge is startling. And nowhere is that lack of basic knowledge more evident than in the man sworn to defend a Constitution I doubt he has ever even read. Listening to then-candidate and now President Trump PASSIONATELY spouting off about protecting non-existent Articles of the constitution (such as the mythical "Article 12"), musing about passing summary judgment on defendants without trial, applauding the House for "repealing Obamacare" (evidently not understanding the legislative process), attempting to ban certain religions, wondering "why" the North and South couldn't just negotiate to avoid the Civil War, pressing cabinet members for personal pledges of loyalty, calling for certain organizations to be penalized for lack of sufficient patriotism, trying to crack down on news organizations he dislikes, enriching himself and his family through the office of the presidency... it's discouraging.
Even worse are the people claiming such things are a sign of America becoming "great again."
7
The most astonishing thing:
"Lost in the news grind over Roy Moore, the lawbreaking Senate candidate from Alabama, is how often he has tried to violate the Constitution. As a judge, he was removed from the bench — twice — for lawless acts that follow his theocratic view of governance."
It's like the whole country has gone supermarket tabloid.
6
Also lost in the coverage was the fact that young teenagers going with or marrying much older men was common practice in Alabama.
Make that young teenage GIRLS marrying much older men. Because we know in Alabama, boys doing so would be put in Moore's suggested concentration camps.
Brilliant article that tells us all we really need to know about what needs fixing in our society. I wish this would have been written 30 years ago.
Courses which were once a staple of what children learned are removed from public schools because of organized groups who also regularly try to censor books and other learning materials. Right-wing media--often disguised as "Christian"--influences the attitudes of many people in surprisingly subtle ways thus the anger when the Bill of Rights is considered in a contemporary setting or the refusal to accept that certain "facts" can be true and other "facts" can be false, not just a matter of opinion.
The attacks on what children are allowed to learn in school means fewer citizens understand the supporting pillars of democracy. The US has an ugly history attached to any test before a citizen is allowed to vote. Passing the "immigrant" test as a condition of graduating high school might be one way around an actual "literacy test" but in some areas of the country tests can be manipulated.
One principle of democracy to hold sacred is that there should be no test before a citizen votes, no fee, no ID, no burdensome gerrymandering which confuses where a voter must physically be present to vote. A citizen has a right to vote. Every effort of government should be made to protect and preserve that right.
5
It is imperative that our Public Schools teach our kids MEDIA LITERACY from the early grades all the way through Grade 12.... the Internet is a complicated, amazing information network now often used for devious purposes of disseminating misinformation and distortions of every variety. If we can't understand, interpret, or believe news and information or know when lies abound and taking us for a ride to manipulate and pollute our minds... then our way of life and democracy is doomed. We must teach the kids how to use and understand this very dangerous and powerful tool that they now access at a very early age.
4
I can't help but compare this to a house with termites. It looks healthy on the outside but is crumbing from within. We've neglected our democracy as citizens by turning it over to parties and a professional political class whose incumbency and narrow interests force out what's good for the country. I never used to think that term limits would solve much, but now I wonder if they are at least part of the solution.
5
You are an exemplary citizen, Mr. Egan, and should also consider becoming an educator. Your editorial speaks volumes to what many of us, who do not align ourselves with either of the two major political parties, are witnessing - a dumbing down of America. While it is evident that we are beginning to pay for this travesty, I fear that we are going to leave the next generations footing most of the bill.
8
And what do you do when one of the two major political parties spends all of its time vilifying anyone with an education and calling them elite?
How do you handle the degradation of education and reasoning skills?
Forget about racism and ethnic insensitivity and misogyny and gender bias. Anti-intellectualism will be the death of us all.
4
It is not only ignorance, but willful ignorance, or ignorance in tandem with arrogance that is pervasive amongst Trump supporters.
According to one philosophical perspective, greed, hatred and ignorance are the roots of much human suffering. The ignorance and arrogance that has been the basis for many bad decisions in our own society will inevitably be followed by painful consequences for the entire nation.
2
I know this article feels good to write, but it misses the mark entirely.
We didn't find ourselves in this situation because of young people believing, spreading, and voting based on fabricated stories and easily identifiable lies from a candidate. The problem was with old people; the ones that actually went through American schools when they were supposedly good, when they had mandated civics courses.
If the one source of news for many old people decides that they want their viewers to believe utter nonsense, there is nothing the NYTimes or high school civics classes can do about it. Sad to say but our society will only improve when one thing happens; when Fox News decides it is in their business interest to reign in the inflammatory garbage.
6
It is all about Trump. Trump, Trump, Trump. This Administration and its President have never gotten off the ground. If Our Nation had a real President, our Allies would not be in retreat from these dangerous caprices, the Paris Climate Accord would be strengthened, we would not be playing 'I am The Greatest' war games with North Korea, our Health Care would not be compromised, tax matters would not be so taxing, and there would be a far better change of restoring 'The Middle Class'.
'Ashamed' because we have such an incompetent leader is not what worries this American for it is long past midnight, and we will never live it down. 'Remorse' is what is waiting on a sunny bench park to greet one. We live in a Messy World, and never in contemporary history has the hour been so dire to have a competent Commander in Chief, a representative of The Free World.
We did it. We shot ourselves in the foot. America and Democracy are being placed to the test, and we are failing left and right. Trump isn't going to read The Constitution and it would not be a surprise if Mr. Xi of North Korea knows far more about this Superpower.
If Putin is worried, he is probably also in Seventh Heaven, but on each and every Nation's political chess board, there is a forgotten pawn. A 'wood-pusher' here cautions to look for our pawn before it is too late to restore our outlook to sanity and sensibility.
3
Let's not make the mistake of attributing the success of Trump to stupid, uninformed people. If Democrats had someone as smart as Steve Bannon on our side, we wouldn't be in this mess.
1
Democrats have plenty of people as smart as Bannon on their side. The difference is that most smart Democrats are not nearly as ruthless or dishonest as Bannon, Trump, or their co-conspirators.
Thank you, Mr. Visintainer (7th grade, Ohio Government), Mr. Gottlieb (10th grade, American Government), and especially Mrs. Haglund (9th grade, English, who took me aside and put a copy of Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" in my hands).
5
Rupert Murdoch has done as much damage to this country as Vladimir Putin. His Fox News has led the way with fake news for years.
9
The triumph of ignorance is extremely depressing. Temporary cures for me include reading the Comments section of the NY Times, and reading articulate well-composed comments from the general public.
For a quick pick-me-up, I watch Jeopardy, and see contestants who are familiar with both 19th Century literature and quantum physics (i can't do that) compete with others in a contest of intelligence and knowledge. They live here, and most were educated here, in the United States. It is comforting to know that since 1984 there is a large enough American audience for the show to broadcast 5 nights per week on commercial television. My hope always is that there is some 14 year old kid living in some part of this country where ignorance is championed, watching and thinking it might be nice to embrace elitism and learn something.
6
Tim is exactly correct!
1
In the immortal words of one Forrest Gump, "stupid is as stupid does." No better description of our American population has ever been said.
2
Most Republicans bought the idea pushed forward by Trump, that Barack Obama was not an American citizen, because he was born in Kenya. Obama was born in Hawaii, but even if he was born in Kenya he would still be an American citizen, because his mother was an American citizen. In the constitution it states that children born to American citizens are American citizens no matter what country they're born in. I was born in 1947 and when someone asks me what my birth date is, at a bar, medical facility or drug store prescription counter, I ask them who was president when I was born. 4 out of 5 people absolutely don't know. Even with hints like he was FDR's vice president or he dropped the atomic bomb or he had an S. for his middle name. The answer is Harry S. Truman. Most people today seem not know modern American history and probably don't care, which has lead us to having a liar in chief, our so called president Trump.
3
Pieces like this one should run in every major news outlet every day. Above the fold/top of the page. I've been hammering on this since Bush II to anyone who'll stand still and listen, but it's only gotten worse. MUCH worse. So much worse that I am no longer able to feel optimistic about chances that we will somehow come to our senses as a nation and turn things around. Sadly, it feels too much, to me, like these will be the end-of-days depicted when the history books are written about America. What a short-lived experiment in self-governance it's been. Sad!
3
Education matters are left to the states. We don’t have a set curriculum that is taught to all Americans and if we did we would worry that it would be a tool of propaganda. Imagine if this administration had the power to shape curricula.
Some states or individual districts within states may indeed teach that the Civil War was a matter of states’ rights. Some teach the “theory” of Creationism in a science class alongside the Theory of Evolution and let students decide which to believe. And then we have people who home school if they want complete control over what their children learn.
Add to this the bubbles people create to live within and here we are. Lies are truth, up is down and good luck trying to convince people otherwise. We live in a country increasingly divided with different news sources, different truths and I am not sure if these even intersect anymore.
7
Liberals have no one to blame but themselves for
the collapse of Public Education.
You removed effective and just discipline in the schools.
Demanded that "Manual Arts" schools be closed so
everyone could attend College Prep schools they
were unprepared for and un-interested in at that
state of their young lives.
You proclaimed there were "no bad students"
but only "bad teachers."
You have imposed so many regulations on Public Schools
that administrators have to be hired to fill out all the forms.
The money that should be spent on teachers/students is
wasted on bureaucrats.
Now the students control the classrooms and
refuse to do more than the minimal work so teachers
do the least to offend - and if that means watering down
the History and Government classes - so be it.
'You sowed the Wind and now you are inheriting the Whirlwind.'
7
Bunk. I taught for 25 years. Most of my students worked hard and are now successful adults.
1
Overwhelmingly depressing.
7
Possibly the winning argument with those in the confused and suspicious far right is about military conflict.
So let's ask our friends this. Suppose two armies fight. The soldiers have equivalent equipment, skill and motivation. One army is lead by educated, experienced and largely secular commanders with a deep appreciation of and expertise in military strategy, tactics and history, as well as chemistry, engineering and human psychology. The other is lead by commanders who don't believe in science, or even truth, have contempt for education and and history and are largely ignorant of military strategy, tactics and history, although they are gun enthusiasts and many of them are ardent Christian or Jewish fundamentalists.
Which side do you think wins? Or, if you want to argue that point, which army would you want fighting for you and your family? In which army would you prefer your children serve?
3
the operative word should be "ignorant", not "stupid". the ignorance comes from the sources of "information" many people choose to rely on. relying on media ranging from fox news to breitbart to infowars, right wingers have no idea whom to believe.
and now this societal ignorance is about to get worse: there's a huge push toward greater concentration in the media, abetted by the right wingers on the fcc.
this concentration in the media is dangerous to our form of government, and even to our health. the times and others should be screaming bloody murder about media concentration and ideology-born ignorance.
1
Ajit Pai is an ignorant lackey for the Kochs, the Mercers, Murdoch, trump, etc', etc!
No we are not with Stupid, stupid is with Stupid, and Stupid is as stupid goes, and so goes the nation, stupider.
2
Thank You, Timothy! Your headline explains it all. But the problem, obviously, is separating ourselves from Trump. Because of "Stupid", we are the laughing-stock of the whole world. At age 87 this is the first time I have ever experienced that. W. came close, but Cheney kept him on the straight and narrow, mostly. Except for the WMDs and Colin Powell explanations........
1
as an outsider, it would not be neighbourly of me to comment much further - except to say this: in a couple of months time, those to the south of me will be consumed by 'hyper-bore' fever, where exactly 12.5 minutes of play and the ball in motion is analysed from noon until midnight. an hour of talk for for each excruciating minute of action.
it isn't much different on this side of the border: we consumer ads, news, analysis and entertainment without discrimination. it's content we allow to be shoved down our throats non-stop, by whatever device is handy-by.
like geese being fatted for 'holiday' pate.
1
timothy i share only a little of your pain with regards to the ignorance of the public at large. you lose me with statements like liar in chief and predisposed assumptions of guilt on mr moore's part. slavery and states rights were both predominant causes of the civil war, read a little more and take your pc blinders off. part of this problem is that pc'ness that began creeping into the public education system decades ago and has so wrecked our teachers ability to teach subject matter that its no wonder the public at large is so ignorant. take your own advice and get out of that little bubble known as the new york times.
I would like to thank Ms Graham (civics), Ms Donelly (Geography), Ms Dickenson (popular arts), and the forgotten others from seventy years ago whose efforts lifted me out of the swamp of ignorance and leads me to second this article. Right on!
1
Another liberal coastal elitist calling people stupid. What could go wrong?
3
The ignorant are dangerous not so much because they do not know, but because they do not know that they do not know.
2
The uninformed, the poorly informed, the misinformed, the anti-informed, and Rupert Murdoch to boot! What to do?
Missing from discussion of Trump's pathological lying is how it is viewed by supporters who believe that he is for them, represents their sense of themselves in the world, see him when they look in the mirror. For those folks, his lying is part of the attraction. They like his disregard for the truth, his lack of empathy, his pride in being ignorant, his changing positions on important issues in the same sentence, his nastiness. His racism, his anti-Semitism, his misogyny. Lying to them, saying things he and they know aren't true: that's all part of the attraction for them. They don't know and don't care to know. Far from being disappointed in him, it makes them feel powerful. Our schools haven't failed us. These people have failed our schools.
2
This starts and ends with Fox News. End of story
2
Words of wisdom from H.L. Mencken
Quote Investigator: On July 26, 1920 H. L. Mencken published a column in “The Evening Sun” of Baltimore titled “Bayard vs. Lionheart”. In the final two paragraphs of his essay Mencken elaborated on his misgivings about the democratic process: 1
The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by the force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
2
The only thing I disagree with is your assignment of blame.Yes there are many mean spirited/selfish who don't care if they harm the general welfare or ignorant people who don't care enough to bother. But no it is NOT all of us, there are many good well informed citizens who try hard to make this country a better place. It's easy to blame the educational system, which has problems, but this a broader cultural problem that is perpetuate by the GOP which wants to be able to manipulate people.
1
Yes we have become complacent, detached from and ignorant of civics and our civic duty. For those of us feeling downtrodden and forgotten it's easier to pop another Opiod and check out and for the rest to click on the next thing we don't need from Amazon and do the same.
I am as horrified as many people are of the Trump presidency but it may have an unintended silver lining. He is boorish, brash, vulgar, greedy, self centered and ignorant of facts and studies nothing. He lives his life as a series of poorly conceived tweets. He is a caricature of a large swath of America. He is causing us to look at ourselves and what we as a nation have become. He is causing our political parties to examine themselves and what they stand for. So far he has decimated the GOP that is looking anything but grand today. So far the only thing they have come up with to improve America is a tax cut for the big corporations and the wealthy and eliminate health care for 13 million Americans. It remains to be seen if the Democrats can and will end run their own donor class and perform their civic duty.
So maybe we got just what we needed in Trump, now we will have to wait and see what we do about it.
2
Sorry, but I refuse to concede that Twitter and Facebook are the "arteries of our democracy."
Perhaps we'd all be better off if the news media quite paying attention to "Trump's tweets" (feels ridiculous even typing that). It's the digital equivalent of him tucking banal little messages into dixie cups and floating them down the Potomac.
2
This is the best essay on what's wrong in this country and should be a 'must read' by all pre-12 students and probably most college-level folks as well. Would that help at this point? Doubtful.
It appears that whether this country survives in the form the founders had in mind will be dependent on those same people Timothy Egan correctly describes as 'stupid'. Including all those confederate red states who prefer to re-litigate the civil war now in religious terms while their conservative financial elitists bretheren clean their plow and everyone else's.
'What's the Matter With Kansas' has become what's the matter with the USA. And I'm not optimistic there is a cure at this late date. The stupid appears to be metastasizing beyond any cure. What he says is wrong is completely correct and way too late to fix. Perhaps some innate spirit of this country will yet surface? With Twitter, Facebook, and I-Phones I'd say doubtful.
1
Stupid is not a majority position...yet. But when coupled with apathy, it's definitely a threat to go all the way. A 26 year old Russian kid, who participated in the great American awakening last year was interviewed on MSNBC this morning. His crew established a line of belief that they tried to operate within, as in "nobody would believe that". But as time passed, they realized they could keep advancing the line until they reached a point where Americans on the right were willing to believe anything as long as it supported their world (or county or tavern) view. The Clinton child sex club operating out of a pizza restaurant was the breakthrough moment. If they could market this, then they could sell anything, including Trump. It is what it is and we are where we are. We are divided and all the king's horses, etc. The last time it took a war that never really ended. The good news is there are still more of us than there of them. The not so good is that it's going to take some effort to restore order. Knowledge, reason and competence are going to have to force ignorance, myth and superstition back under the rock. " They" are angry, motivated and will stay that way. "We" are, I don't really know. Maybe "things" aren't bad enough yet. Maybe the Russian kid was right.
3
Almost 40 years ago, I began teaching law. Part of my job was the teaching of legal research. I discovered that my students knew nothing about the Constitution or their government. And, I discovered that I couldn't teach them how to "find the law " because they didn't know who made laws or how they made those laws. Beginning in 1981, I started my first class with the words, "There are 3 branches of government..." I then devoted several classes to a basic civics course. And my students wrote down every word I said. So, the problem isn't recent and it is so pervasive as to affect law students. I was shocked in 1980, but sadly I am not shocked now. Not by the Donald, nor by all his supporters. Indeed, I'm surprised it took so long for the problem to become apparent. At least to some people.
6
It is a bit disingenuous to suggest that the problem with a lack of critical thinking or knowledge of government is only a problem among Trump supporters. Filtered news feeds that basically create echo chambers are common among most people regardless of party, and it is apparent by the common replies among Democrats and Republicans. As an example Democrats often parrot ‘gerrymandering’ as one of the reasons for Trump getting elected, but gerrymandering doesn’t affect the election of the President except in two states which allocate Electoral College votes by Congressional district. Another is that the ‘problem’ with the Electoral College is ascribed to be a problem with the Constitution, but the Constitution only prescribes an Electoral College, not how the votes are allocated as that is determined by the states. Ironically Democrats need to complain to their own Blue states on the issue, not to the Federal Government.
This isn’t hard stuff to understand, one just needs to be willing to spend a few minutes researching it instead of parroting a line from an echo chamber.
1
I don't have stats, but I suspect that extreme gerrymandering -- such as what was done here in Wisconsin -- tends to depress voter turnout. Yes, the lack of critical thinking is not only a problem of Trump supporters, but I would not treat the echo chambers as equivalent by any stretch.
Posted around July 2016 as I recall... echo chambers filter, sometimes reality.
https://michaelmoore.com/trumpwillwin/
5 Reasons Why Trump Will Win | MICHAEL MOORE
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president. And now I have even more awful, depressing news for you: Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: “PRESIDENT TRUMP.”
Never in my life have I wanted to be proven wrong more than I do right now.
I can see what you’re doing right now. You’re shaking your head wildly – “No, Mike, this won’t happen!” Unfortunately, you are living in a bubble that comes with an adjoining echo chamber where you and your friends are convinced the American people are not going to elect an idiot for president.
Please stop blaming citizens' ignorance for Trump. The reason Trump is president is because we don't live in a democracy and that has become more and more the case as we struggle with a polarized society. Until our institutions become more equitable we are going to continue to have a problem. Simply put, we appear to be at a tipping point where the next stop is Julius Ceaser.
1
Far be it from me to dispute Tim Egan's contention that the root cause is the decline of American education and the diminution in the capacity of voters to distinguish truth from falsehood. Every time I have lived in Europe over the past three decades, I have met people who are of the same social and economic class as Trump voters, but whose knowledge of history, economics, literature, and philosophy is far greater, and whose ability to carry on an intelligent conversation – even if their political view is different from my own – based in facts and credible sources. And frankly, I am tired of having my European friends and colleagues tell me that Americans are some of most superficial people on the planet, mostly because I can see that they are correct.
But I also think that education only goes so far to explain our recent predicament. I am convinced that many Trump/Ryan/McConnell/Moore supporters know that what these four charlatans are saying is not true, but they just don't care. They agree with the legislative and social goals of the current GOP, and if Trump/Ryan/McConnell/Moore said that down was up, or two was four (they already believe that three persons are one), they would overlook that because they want to stick it to the opposition, their enemies.
As an educator, this dismays me to the core of my being. I used to think that knowledge would overcome other malevolent human passions, but each day of this administration I am losing that faith.
3
$450 million for a painting is really obscene when you think about how many people suffer for lack of adequate resources. Our society is really sick and we do not seem to have political leadership desiring to solve problems instead of create them.
I've thought since Trump started to appeal to voters with some of his more startling promises, this country could use one big civic lesson. Maybe to hold public office one should have to pass a test.. someone highly credible to all sides should have said, if want someone who flouts the constitution, at least make that choice with your eyes open.
3
Trump should have had to take a Civics test and mental health testing. I hope we're not doomed by this administration. #HurryMueller.
"There’s hope — and there are many ways — to shed light on the cave of American democracy. More than a dozen states now require high school students to pass the immigrant citizenship test."
this is encouraging.
now, how about anyone filing papers to run for office be required to show proof they've passed this test, as well. just a thought.
2
One of your best pieces. This is perhaps the worst consequence of Trumpism (i.e., the culmination of decades of right-wing propaganda and manipulation). Fight truth to power!
2
The problem is that the Russians knew exactly how to exploit our stupidity.
If we wise up, they'll adjust their tactics accordingly.
They are winning this game and it's well into the 4th quarter!
1
I disagree. He is with stupid (hint: it's us!)
1
Somehow the posters on this site and the readers of the NYT, generally, weren't taken in by fake news on Facebook. I don't think we're necessarily smarter than anyone else, just more interested in the world at large.
That's a quality open to anybody who cares.
Even if you're stacking shelves at Walmart, you can keep yourself informed.
1
When did I learn about our government, our political system, the responsibilities of a citizen, and more? In the fifth grade and again in the eighth grade. That was long ago. Civics has all but disappeared from our school curricula. This is educational malpractice. Jefferson's ideal of an informed citizenry is rarely apparent these days.
3
"By a 48 percent to 38 percent margin Americans think states’ rights, rather than slavery, caused the Civil War."
In the 1950s my high school history teacher insisted the civil war was about states rights, not slavery. Later on a teacher at the local junior college repeated the same nonsense. At the time, I did not understand how wrong they were. When I repeated this information to my grandmother, whose father fought on the southern side, she told me she had been brought up to understand the fight was about slavery. So, clearly, in the south in the mid 19th century there was no misunderstanding about the cause of the war.
The far right whines about "fake news", but they are very adept at twisting fact to suit their own agenda.
1
If you have parents that pass to their children biased and ignorant opinions and information, you end up with another generation of stupid...what about a parent test.
2
I think there are some simple minded people out there that may adopt ALL the beliefs, and prejudices of their parents; but I hold out the hope that more will not. I did not. I rebelled against the false information being peddled about the Vietnam War. I marched in protest of the war, and got arrested and detained without being charged with breaking the law. I was also illegally photographed by the FBI as an underage teen.
My parents believed in the Lutheran Church and were christians. It never stuck with me. I practiced Zen Buddhism for awhile, but I place religion in about the same category as superstition. I hold my beliefs lightly, as in the case of new information, they are proved as wrong as the notion that "life springs from rotting matter." My parents had firm beliefs and prejudices about women, men, African Americans, Republicans and Democrats, Jews, gay people and all matter of things. Those obvious beliefs of theirs did not sway me from questioning all of that. I became the only white student to attend the Black Awareness Club after school, because I thought prejudice against blacks was so unfair. I was already a feminist having been the brunt of many unfair prejudices already. My name is the plaque inside the Holocaust Museum as I was one of its first donors, because I learned in the German Club, that the Holocaust is real and "Never Again," resonated.
Reasoning between right and wrong, experience and empathy can change the world.
In Washington state, the public access station TVW is tackling the problem with programs like Engaged and Capitol Classroom. High school students participate in the state legislative process in real time from their own classrooms via the station's communications setup. Students can even create and follow their own bills, then attend the signing ceremony in Olympia if they're passed into law. The idea is to help create better citizens by getting students actively involved with their government.
3
"We have allowed the educational system to become negligent in teaching the owner's manual of citizenship."
Although, I fully agree with the majority of this article, I take issue with this characterization. Later, the article specifically uses the term educators as if we make all the decisions about our curriculum. As a teacher of High School history I can say unequivocally say we would love nothing more than a return to comprehensive civics education, but our pleas get ignored and our programs are underfunded.
I recently attended a civics conference for educators put on by the Massachusetts department of education where the deputy commissioner confirmed what we all were thinking. There would be no civics requirement and no additional funding proposed to help develop programs. We were told that we needed to integrate it into our current programs.
I assure you we do our best, but it is impossible to effectively teach civic responsibility while simultaneously teaching history in a meaningful way. It needs to be a separate course and a graduation requirement. The best teachers I know struggle with this on a regular basis. It is not the teachers or the "educational system" It is the priorities of our leadership that leads to inaction. If our State and Federal legislators believed this was a priority, it would happen.
1
Often, it’s very hard to understand liberals.
In one breath they demand that voting be facilitated to the point where it consists of nothing more than pressing a “D” (but never an “R”) button on a beer bottle while sitting in a bar watching a football game that soon will be outlawed for the damage it causes to players; and with the next breath they’re complaining about the natural consequences of making voting so easy, because … “too many Americans are ill equipped to perform the basic functions of citizenship”.
You can’t make this stuff up.
You’d think we’d limit access to the franchise to the few in America who at least CAN name the four branches of government (Legislative, Executive, Judicial and Paul Krugman); or at least stop complaining that voting is made inconvenient enough to cause vast numbers of the disengaged to conclude that it’s just not worth the bother to put aside for a bit the activities and pleasant distractions of busy lives.
Listening to the arguments of BOTH sides, one can only conclude that the TRUE definition of “fake news” is “whatever attacks my personal belief system”. The Russians undoubtedly opted to participate in our last presidential election for their own reasons … but, then, so did ample numbers of Americans on BOTH sides who sought to manipulate the foolish and disengaged through misinformation. Tim seems to be complaining that his adversaries simply were more energetic and successful than he.
Today, Tim makes my arguments FOR me.
1
Hilariously on point...Had to pull over my Prius to chuckle...
1
As part of their sentencing for violating the Logan Act, Facebook, Twitter and Google could be forced to do community service by teaching in their feeds the basic knowledge of citizenship, as well as some basic scientific facts like climate change.
1
What's weakening the U.S. is that actual facts can be disputed and twisted to suit a point of view, with little protest. It all comes down to "Does this info suit my POV?".
Look at the Franken issue and call to resign - yet yesterday Scott DesJarlais, R-TN, voted in the House to overhaul the tax code. Who, you say?
"In October 2012 the Huffington Post obtained a transcript of a recorded September 2000 phone conversation in which DesJarlais pressured a mistress to get an abortion. Nine days before the general election a second woman came forward to state that she began dating DesJarlais while she was his patient. She alleged that the two smoked marijuana together and that he prescribed pain medications for her while at his house. Two weeks after DesJarlais won the 2012 election, the Chattanooga Times Free Press obtained a full transcript of DesJarlais's 2001 divorce proceedings. The transcript revealed that DesJarlais had admitted under oath to at least six sexual relationships with people he came in contact with while he was chief of staff at Grandview Medical Center in Jasper, Tennessee. Among them were three co-workers, two patients and a drug representative."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_DesJarlais
Remember S.C. Governor Mark Sanford was pilloried for going to Argentina for his affair (lying to his staffers about whereabouts)? He's now in the House - and also voted to overhaul the tax code. Some people don't want facts - AND they're hypocrites. Not a good combo.
7
Wow, a powerful opinion, Mr. Egan. I was required to take a civics class in high school in the late 1950s. And as freshman in college in 1960, I was required to take courses in American history and Constitutional law. So the question becomes: why are the subjects no longer taught in a majority of public high schools and, I'm guessing, a minority of colleges? A lack of money? A lack of interest by students? Both? Is racism partly to blame? My opinion is that our democracy has been gradually undermined by oligarchs over the past two decades, and I am glad to have lived in a democracy during the best 50 years ever--1945 through 1985.
3
In her newly released memoir detailing her days as editor of Vanity Fair, Tina Brown writes that she recalls Donald Trump in 1987 as "an entertaining con man!" And now he "entertains" us from the Oval Office expanding his con job. I send sympathy cards to his supporters.
2
This essay should be reprinted over and over!
2
The king of gaslighting in the United States is the Republican party and the Evangelicals with the help of Facebook.
1
Don't blame public education. Just simply listen to the banter on C-Span by the morning call-ins. Or watch C-Span provide countless "experts" from Heritage, Hoover, American Enterprise Institute, Cato, etc. No one ever prefaces the introduction by stating their philosophy or political connections. Our media has been taken over by billionaires. Older white citizens who eat up C-Span and should know better are simply regurgitating the propaganda they hear from Hannity, Fox and Friends, Limbaugh, etc. They don't read unless it's Bill O'Reilly's version of history or Newt Gingrich's view of politics. The Koch Brothers and their ilk are now carving up our country's resources, propagandizing our minds and leaving us with a bankrupt safety net, a demoralized citizenry and infrastructure that is failing big time. A prosperity evangelical Christian flies her Gulfstream up to D.C. to extend her arms in prayer over a lecherous old and dirty man and we want to blame lack of citizenship education in public schools for our woes.
1
Preach! and thank you for this article!!
Agree with the piece. There is another ingredient to the mix. Many people lack the curiosity Gene. As obvious as it sounds, Much of the education process takes place outside of the classroom.
Some magazine or paper online just had an example of the citizenship test immigrants must pass before becoming citizens. I missed one because it wouldn't go to the next page and I kept tapping the screen. It changed suddenly and I hit the wrong answer to the next question which was in the same spot as the "next page" button, otherwise I woud have aced it. It's not that hard, but I can't imagine the difficulty coming from another country plus the language difference. I also have degrees in history and political science, that was a bonus. The deal is, regardless of their ignorance of the system, everyone should have the right to vote, and have as few roadblocks thrown in front of them as possible. If we really want to improve our system of government we need to clamp down on who and how much people, businesses, and organizations can give to political campaigns. 10,000 people may give $100, but 1 person may give $10 million, that 1 has more pull than the 10,000. That has to stop or, like the current tax bill, a handful of wealthy donors are going to buy our government for themselves and the businesses they own. That is what thy call fascism.
Outstanding article. Democracy in USA is on the death bed. Is there hope? No.Our citizens are too lazy to defend what the nation's founders created. China and Russia just have to wait. They don't have to interfere with our democracy. All they require is patience. We'll dismantle our heritage by ourselves,by being lazy and spoiled.
Another huge part of the problem besides the loss of civics education is that we sold our citizenship rights to the biggest donors through travesties like the Citizens United decision. We have an abysmally low rate of voter turnout in this country (partly responsible for Trump's election). Voters may believe with some justification that their votes don't matter since their elected "respresentatives" are so beholden to their wealthy donors that their interests are irrelevant to how Congress votes. Look only to the latest GOP tax plan to see validation of this reality. Getting big money out of politics is our only hope.