A secular Amen. Critical thinking is almost entirely absent from public discourse and thinking on important societal issues - across the board, across the political spectrum. Liberals tend to think their discourse and positions are based on reason and critical thinking, but not so for conservatives. Conservatives tend to think they are critical thinkers, but that Liberals are not. Both see their positions as moral, and the others' positions as often being immoral. Obviously, this is a generalization and there is overlap and a lot of people sort of in the middle, but this is the general character of the public discourse.
As long as most focus on important problems being the fault of some "other" rather than the result of the more pervasive, deeper, more fundamental problem of the devaluing and general failure to pursue truth through reason (critical thinking) we will remain mired in these problems and continue to allow new ones to be emerge. It is a basic problem of our species, not just this or that group or political affiliation. I realize this is way off topic, but since this thread has generated some comments, guess I will join in, since I have recently been developing 2 theories related to this and have been thinking and writing about this a lot in the process. Randall ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rev. Stewart Marshall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 8:55 PM Subject: Re: [CGUYS] Off topic-policical > It goes both ways both left and right. > > The Radical Right is just as bad as the radical left. They are > really mirror images of each other. > > Stewart > > > 08:40 PM 4/28/2007, you wrote: >>I suspect that a lot of people don't have the time or inclination to >>find out if what they hear is true. It is to your credit that you do try. >>Many people who watch Fox do not know that they are right leaning, >>sometimes radically so. These people are not stupid. They just don't >>know any better, for a host of different reasons. Knowing what our >>country has become, such ignorance is almost unforgivable. At this >>point polls are showing that most people who choose to watch Fox are >>right wing ideologues. >> >>In the last few years, even NPR has been penetrated by the right. >> >>Several of the media I mentioned previously are not out to make >>money. They are subsidized by radical right wing millionaires. They >>are part of the Republican noise machine. >> >>If you are curious, check out >>http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/09/09_400.html > > Rev. Stewart A. Marshall > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Prince of Peace > Ozark, AL SL 82 > > > ************************************************************************ > * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== > * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== > * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name > * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST > * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L > * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress > * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ************************************************************************ > * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml > * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived > ************************************************************************ > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.6.1/777 - Release Date: 4/26/2007 3:23 > PM > ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
