Too many Americans can no longer use any level of critical thinking. Simply defined, critical thinking involves the skill of considering the consequences of doing or not doing something before taking action. The opposite of critical thinking is irrational thinking. This problem originates in the educational system thanks to programs such as outcome-based education and now common-core. It is then accelerated by “real quick” short-attention span social media and addiction to electronic devices. In the 2006 comedy Idiocracy, a then- present day “dullard” is placed in suspended animation. He wakes up 500 years later and he’s the smartest person in the country. What made and makes that film funny is there is an element of truth to it. Americans were dumbed-down over time. How could that happen?
As my first example, much has been made about COVID-19 . The short-attention span claim is over 200K Americans have died due to it. The fact is if you take the time to look it up, according to the CDC only 6 percent of that number (or about 13K) have died due solely to it, with the remainder merely having it- along with an average of 2.6 other maladies. This year over 90K Americans have died from Influenza, and flu deaths have far exceeded 13K over the past several years. The median age for COVID deaths is 78- which is also the average lifespan of an American. Mr. Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 talking about the great depression said “...all we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” This unreasoning fear has put Americans out of work and kept kids out of schools. Then there is the mask mandate mania vs comparison of data where mask mandates have been in place for a while against those where they have not- it’s not a significant difference.
My second example is the BLM organization, which has been raised to the level of a religious institution. While they exist to protest blacks killed by police, they ignore the other 90 percent that are killed by other blacks- which can be easily proved if one takes the time to look at crime data- or simply to look at gun homicide victims in Tallahassee or other midsize to large cities. Why is it those black lives do not matter to them?
Finally, our recent election was a perfect example of a mass-scale lack of critical thinking. People like republican former Ohio governor John Kasich voted for Mr. Biden, yet were Mr. Kasich to take the time to contrast his ideologies with Mr. Biden or Libertarian Jo Jorgenson, she would have been a much better fit for him. Instead, he made an emotion (hatred) based vote. Others that support the progressive agenda cannot see the true consequences of raising taxes on the most productive Americans, decimating the petroleum industry (notably those in Pennsylvania), or defunding police- which will lead to anarchy. Similarly, the passage of the magic $15/hour shows over 60 percent of voters here cannot see the negative effect it will have on their lives down the road and how it will have the opposite effect on those it was supposed to help.
It’s been said we get the government we deserve, and we’re about to see how true that is over the next several years.
Paul Henry