[topato]

Its scary how many things Trump says, claims that are roughly equivalent to, "1 + 2 = 4", which people just eat up as truth!

It feels like all the deficets in our education system (going back decades) are finally coming to roost... so many people lack critical thinking skills and media savvy/awareness. I think its too late to fix it, now that a sufficient majority of people are susceptible to this deception, and a sufficient chunk of politicians are willing to deceive them... there is too much motivation to keep them dumb. The hatred towards the "Intellectual Elite" is scary, and really is reminicent of Pol Pot.

[tombert]

It reminds me more of the Cultural Revolution than anything.

[CamperBob2]

Education isn't the problem with Trump voters, stupidity is.

Remember that this is his second term. Every American voter had the benefit of four years of "education" regarding Trump's character and competence. A majority of them responded by freely and enthusiastically demanding four more such years.

[tombert]

There's an outright attack on education as well though.

The fact that you can become a teacher in Florida without a degree just by being a veteran [1] comes as a result of an exodus of teachers because there has been an outright attack on education institutions. The reasons "why" have been debated but ultimately it is abundantly clear that the issue isn't just stupidity, but also the very act of education itself.

There has been a concerted effort by conservatives to tell the public that modern universities are giant "woke propaganda" factories. I was an adjunct in 2022 and 2023, and I must have missed the memo where I was told to instruct every student to get a sex change, but this didn't stop my idiotic grandmother from saying that "even computer science students get woke indoctrination".

But of course, this isn't a recent thing. I remember when I was younger, conservatives would spend a lot of time taking scientific studies out of context to talk about how we're wasting grant money [2].

The "treadmills for shrimp" is a good example: anyone who spent ten seconds actually doing research on this would see that the "treadmills" actually aren't stupid and they're measuring metabolism, and I am quite confident that the people who started spreading this propaganda knew this, so it's an active lie. I'm sure they think they're doing it for good reasons, but this isn't about "stupidity" at this point, it is an outright attack on research and science.

[1] https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-florida-law-education-...

[2] https://www.npr.org/2011/08/23/139852035/shrimp-on-a-treadmi...

[CamperBob2]

The fact that you can become a teacher in Florida without a degree just by being a veteran [1] comes as a result of an exodus of teachers because there has been an outright attack on education institutions. The reasons "why" have been debated but ultimately it is abundantly clear that the issue isn't just stupidity, but also the very act of education itself.

Very true, and just another example of the inspiration the Republicans draw from Russia and other tyrant states.

There's a horrifying story in WSJ today that I hope gets more traction, about how soldiers returning from duty on the Ukraine front are being recruited to teach in public schools. The subjects in question range from flagrantly-bogus Russian history to drone piloting to Kalashnikov and Dragunov rifle skills, and the kids in question are as young as eight. According to a quote from Putin in the article, "Wars aren't won by generals, they're won by schoolteachers." He's got a point there.

Still, even the best-intended education can only plant seeds. If the ground is barren, then the effort will be wasted at best and counterproductive at worst. We are slouching towards Moscow, Tehran, and Kabul.