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Play online chess!
So-called 'Experts'!
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 So-called 'Experts'!You betcha! And I have met at least one person in each of these categories in my time. The difference isn't the ability to think, but the assumptions they think from and the objectives the consider desirable. Even now, you can see it in Trumpism. Sure, Trump's base are often credulous half-wits; but there are many educated people who know Trump's faults and still support him. But while they see him as a flawed tool, he is the best tool available at this time for what they consider a good purpose. And even the half-wit base still respect 'expertise' so long as those experts satisfy their needs. They only object to experts who disagree with them. Even Trump claims to be a 'genius'! It's just that his 'genius' in his 'gut feeling', his 'instinct', rather than in any formal training. So being an 'expert' isn't the issue. Idiots only dislike experts that disagree with them. So what's the difference between a formally-trained 'expert' and a genius with 'gut feeling'? Here is a snippet that is worth reading... Does Formal Education Still Matter? How Far You Can Go Without It and Where You Might Get Stuck Dr Chris Palmer Dr. Palmer's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a question I field a lot as a dean. The real question is: "What kind of difference does formal education actually make if I do have it?" Let’s start with a couple common objections to formal education that are keeping people out of it these days. Formal education turns people into weirdos. Those who are out of touch. Socially inept. Tucked away behind stacks of books and syllabi, speaking in jargon no one asked for. People go off to college and come back sounding like they forgot what a living room conversation feels like. Fair criticism. That does happen. Formal education is too irrelevant. It’s too expensive, too political, too slow to adapt to the real world. Again, that can be true. But here’s why I think formal education still matters, especially now. And why these criticisms, though can be the case, don’t have to and certainly shouldn’t deter students from the benefits. Formal education helps you think more fairly. That’s the biggest difference I notice between those who’ve been trained and those who haven’t. Educated thinkers tend to resist the “gotcha” mindset. They know how to sit with tension, how to weigh both sides, how to say, “It depends.” Untrained thinkers often fall into the trap of absolutism. Everything is either this or that. Every problem has a single solution. It’s like trying to talk fine cuisine with someone who’s only ever eaten at the Costco food court. They just don’t have the categories. Formal education forces you to do real work. Formal education demands output. Not just opinions. Not just scrolling and posting. Actual, structured work. Most people today consume half-formed ideas and turn them into half-formed takes. Without deadlines, without feedback, without a process, your thinking rarely matures. It just floats around in your own head. Formal Education makes you engage. You’re not just reading. You’re writing, defending, revising. It sharpens you. Formal education gives you a feedback loop. This one might be the most underrated. When I was in College, I got into the habit of testing my ideas with people who had the knowledge and guts to push back. That habit has saved me more times than I can count. I’ve walked out of plenty of conversations thinking, “Thank God I didn’t say that out loud on a stage.” Without a feedback loop, you end up preaching or posting things that sound good in your head, but fall apart under pressure. Good thinkers are shaped by resistance. Not applause, not shares and likes. |
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Good Thinkers Amen. |
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jonheck 18-Aug-25, 09:54 |
educated idiots |
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Jon 09:54 That was not the case when I went through Sydney University for my B.E., nor Morling College for my B.Th. My daughter, who currently lectures part-time at Sydney Uni, says the students are business-like in their approach. Perhaps it's different in USA, where a large percentage of students are simply following the family's traditional 'cursus honorum'; get a degree to hang on your wall before inheriting a job that doesn't need it. That was the HUGE benefit in the time that Australian universities didn't charge fees; it meant that even children from poor families could get in, so places went to those who came top of the academic merit examinations. Of course, that was wound back over time and now it's student loans rather than up-front fees. They count against credit ratings when trying to buy a home, so still not attractive to people without family funding. |
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College |
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It's not a purge.... He KNOWS that the American economy is the best it's ever been in the last 20,000 years, so that b*tch should have known her numbers on employment were wrong. Get rid of her! He KNOWS that Iran's nuclear programme with take five centuries to replace what was bombed, so how 'intelligent' is his military intelligence? So Trump is doing what any sensible person would do; he's replacing those half-wits with people who share his own infallible gut feelings. |
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Bob He calls it "common sense" and claims to have a lot of it. |
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Reality Some blasts from the past: Reagan administration: "War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ketchup Is a Vegetable." Karl Rove: “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” |
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Rove From Wiki The phrase was attributed by journalist Ron Suskind to an unnamed official in the George W. Bush administration who used it to denigrate a critic of the administration's policies as someone who based their judgments on facts. In a 2004 article appearing in the New York Times Magazine, Suskind wrote: The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'. International relations scholar Fred Halliday writes that the phrase reality-based community (in contrast to faith-based community) was used "for those who did not share [the Bush administration's] international goals and aspirations". Suskind has maintained his refusal to name the speaker, but the source of the quotation was widely speculated to be Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove. End quote. This is the first time I heard that quote attributed to Rove. Is the quote out of character? I never knew that much about Turd Blossom. I’ve read quotes attributed to Bill Gates I recognized as false because I’ve read things Gate’s wrote, and listened to interviews, and the inconsistency was blatant. Here I don’t know. Rove was a fart smeller, who engineered Bush’s entrance into the White House via Texas. I wish Suskind would end the mystery. When he wrote that, I didn’t connect it to Rove, but cannot discount the possibility. I certainly cannot name a better candidate. |
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Ketchup on the Curtain Origin: In 1981, during the Reagan administration, the USDA proposed changes to school lunch regulations to give schools more flexibility and reduce costs. The Proposal: The changes, which included allowing certain items to count as vegetables to meet minimum nutritional requirements, led to widespread criticism. The Symbolism: The idea of counting ketchup, a high-sugar, high-salt condiment, as a vegetable became a symbol of the government's economic policies and indifference to children's nutrition. The Outcome: The proposal was met with a significant public outcry and was not adopted into law, though it remains a notable event in American political and culinary history. From Gemini. I had heard this expression but was not aware of the origin, outside its association with the Reagan administration. The background is useful, cost cutting measures impacting children's health. You know, this reminds me about our cat. When my wife was pregnant with our second child, we adopted a cat that was a keen companion to Sherry, always climbing on her lap, seemingly absorbed by her pregnancy. But when our daughter was born the cat lost complete interest in both mother and child. That is when I realized the cat was Republican. |
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Shiva 06:04 Wow!! Does anyone remember Cnut the Great, and his North Sea Empire that covered England, Denmark and Norway? Perhaps the more common name 'King Canute' might jog a memory or two. Cnut 'created his own reality'! He needed a dry change of socks before the day ended. Or perhaps Constantine 11th Palaiologos. Emperor of a state that once stretched from Dakar to the Clyde to the Elbe to Romania to the Persian Gulf and back to Dakar, including all of Egypt and North Africa on the way. Now THERE was an Empire fit to create dozens of realities. Constantine's body was never recovered, so he must still be in that 'new reality'. But his empire isn't. Where is Rod Serling when you need him? The Trump Administration could use his talents! |
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RFK Jr on Mitochondria Quote: Former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, who served under former President Biden, criticized Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday for suggesting he could identify children suffering from mitochondrial challenges just by encountering them in public settings. “I’m sorry but what?” Jha wrote in a post on the social platform X, responding to a clip from an event in Texas. “Our Health Secretary says that he sees kids at airports and can tell by their faces that they have mitochondrial challenges,” Jha continued. “This is wacky, flat-earth, voodoo stuff people,” he added. “This is not normal.” Kennedy made the controversial remarks in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) legislation alongside the HHS secretary. The health secretary reflected on the children he’s encountered since arriving in Texas, saying at the event, “I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like.” “I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation,” Kennedy said. “You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection,” he continued. “And I know that that’s not how our children are supposed to look.” The comments were met with some resistance, especially by those who questioned how Kennedy arrived at his diagnosis of the children he encountered at the airport. thehill.com |
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Shiva And, although I initially heard trump administrat6ion speak the new MAHA slogan, I'm not at all surprised that the "good" governor from Texas created it, and I have little doubt that trump pulled his pants down for Abbot for working to give him credit for the slogan. |
