textualdeviance: (Default)
textualdeviance ([personal profile] textualdeviance) wrote2006-03-11 02:37 pm

gah

Okay, last navel-gazing of the day before I finally go force myself to do something constructive:

Just because you don't understand an explanation of something doesn't mean it's wrong. I don't understand what goes through Stephen Hawking's head, but that doesn't mean I assume he's wrong. Sometimes you just have to defer to someone who obviously knows more about a subject than you do.

If I deconstruct something an expert says, I do so methodically. I don't just say "you're wrong because of (insert anecdotal evidence here)"

Experience and education count. It's unfortunate that American culture has deteriorated to the point where so many people think those things don't matter--and who even actively reject them. One of the complaints about Kerry, for instance, was that he was over educated or too intellectual.

Que?

Sue me, but I'd kind of like a president who HAS had study and experience about economics and foreign policy. Good gravy. I'm not hiring someone I want to have a beer and shoot pool with. Education should be part of required qualifications for jobs with a lot of power. Unless you want to trust your next spleen surgery to someone who simply seems like a down to earth guy--who cares if his medical degree came from the University of Mail Order Degrees, eh?

Anti-intellectualism is going to be this country's downfall. I can just smell it.

[identity profile] pixxelpuss.livejournal.com 2006-03-12 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
I noticed this when we first moved here. Maybe it's the rugged individualism, but people feel they have a right to an opinion about Everything, which makes sense, sure. But they also feel that their opinion is worth just as much as some guy who spent the last ten years researching the topic. The receptionist at my chiropractor's office told me that she "heard somewhere" that vaccinations give kids autism (most medical evidence and a very convincing japanese study indicate that this is false) and then she stopped getting her kids vaccinated, presumably against her doctor's advice. EXCUSE ME? What kind of idiot do you have to be to take hearsay above a trained doctor's medical advice?

[identity profile] hawkdancer.livejournal.com 2006-03-12 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
AMEN!

Maybe it's too radical, but I think that education's fall in prestige is linked to how there are more women getting higher education. If more women do it than men, it must be inferior, right?

[identity profile] lilithlotr.livejournal.com 2006-03-12 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
It shouldn't surprise you that a country that loved Reagan would distrust Kerry. Can you imagine two more different people?