Cults, group-think, propaganda and conspiracy-beliefs stand no chance against Critical Thinking.
Yet Critical Thinking is under-taught at our schools.
How is it possible that the most potent tool at the disposition of the human brain is largely ignored by the education-system?
You could be forgiven for believing that the powers that be, prefer us to remain susceptible to their propaganda, group-think and use of conspiracy-theories and that therefore they discourage teaching of critical thinking skills in our schools.
The Texas Republican party did exactly that in their 2012 GOP Platform release (which they subsequently reworded to obfuscate this intent), because Higher Order Thinking skills and Critical Thinking skills “focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
see Washington Post, Forbes and AustinChronicle.
WHAT THE ? Yes the GOP wants to prevent questioning fixed beliefs and parental authority, by law!
Talking about ‘Conservative’!
Fixed beliefs such as Religious beliefs and conspiracy theories are clear signals of a need for authority. We don’t want to change that! Authority depends on unquestioned acceptance. If you believe that a group of shape-shifting lizards in the(!) Deep State is controlling the government, than political populists can play with that and manipulate your fears and disgust. Since we are at it, why not say that Democrats are managing a network of pedophiles? It provides the dumb voters who are looking for ways to demostrate that they have a noble cause in society. They now think that they are special because they are against paedophilia, and in order to feel special they also must believe that a majority, or a powerful elite, is all for paedophilia. Let’s throw in that God sent Trump to wipe out these pedophiles (Democrats), easy, they believe in God so why wouldn’t God be against pedophiles and send a warrior President? The voters who believe this will also ignore that Trump and pedophile Epstein have been best mates and Trump, for years, visited Epstein’s personal pedo-island. Their vote counts as much as the vote of the intellectual who evaluates evidence and logic.
It’s just you get the dumb vote so much easier, and with poor public schooling, and expensive quality schooling those cheap votes remain available to the GOP. And once they submitted to these irrational beliefs they will not let go. The GOP has their fervent support. Their heart, soul and identity are connected to the GOP, because the Democrats are so evil, that after raping the children (thousands and thousands of them), they drink the children’s blood whilst they are kept alive as long as possible, until their heart is ripped out and eaten whilst still pulsating. They will never allow a representative of that pedopgile cult represent them, and certainly they will never vote Democrat. Done. And so the GOP has acquired the most loyal cult-following, who will give their lives to prevent Democrats taking over power.
Meanwhile the Democrats’ continue to play along as if there were some level of fair play and as if more and more people have developed superior thinking skills. All whilst the GOP keeps flooding the talk-back radio waves for those thousands of people moving packages for Amazon, stacking at Walmart, driving trucks, cabs and buses. Filling the air-waves with absurd claims, fake stories of extreme violence and pedophile theories, knowing that for every hundred of their listeners there’s maybe a couple of people able to read, understand and evaluate the New York Times. Easy picking votes for the GOP, hard work for the Democrats.
The GOP is happy to fulfill that political authority role that fixed-belief-voters need.
Critical thinking would question fixed beliefs, would question authority and would question the GOP.
Political parties have little benefit from voters equipped with Critical Thinking skills, but the Republicans are truly afraid of it.
The problem of cults, conspiracy theories, propaganda, appeals to emotion, etc. will continue to hold back progress as long as the participants in the political power games benefit from it.
Oh, and yes most Democrats are biased, cherry-picking and pandering to special-interest groups. They are humans and politicians after all. Their arguments however, in general, satisfy the basic criteria of: premises, logic and conclusion and thus can be analyzed and evaluated. Of course the quality of their arguments varies, but there appears to be a basic commitment to reason.
Not so with the GOP.
The GOP knows that the argument-structure is only required by an intellectual minority. A simple focus on name-calling, simple dichotomies like right v. wrong, appeal to emotion, conspiracies and religious beliefs gets the message, across much more effectively than well-structured valid arguments. Their audience, by and large, does not have the time, nor the skills to evaluate arguments on merit. Let alone that their are trained in self-reflection. Is what I am thinking true? How do I know? Are questions that I do not see Trump, nor his supporters ask themselves. Admittedly that is my prejudice, but it is based on the difficulty that I have in catching GOP-representatives with a valid argument.
Until schools and further education curriculae are based on critical thinking we continue to be held back by the evil ghosts of superstition and primal emotions, benefitting those in power, and especially useful to the authoritarian, self-centered, self-aggrandizing power-crazed politician like Putin, Xi, Kim, Bolsonaro and Trump (Boris, you didn’t make the list, by a hair, you can thank me later, or should I apologize?).
