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Why the Right Hates Education


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I have found an article on Salon.com which has moved me. Edwin Lyngar, who grew up in a Nevada mining town with all the anti-education prejudices one might expect, along with the conservative political views that often accompany such prejudices, took years to complete a college education and has discovered the value of being exposed to more than simply the narrow and simplistic views of those who hate education. In his experience, he sees a similar strain among American anti-intellectualism and that of Islamic extremism and Boko Haram--which translates as "Education is Forbidden." It's an eye-opening piece that exposes the prejudice that is exploited by politicians such as Scott Walker and Rick Santorum.

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/26/the_rights_fear_of_education_what_i_learned_as_a_former_conservative_military_man/

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In colonial times there were two reasons for education.

One was to learn how to read the bible. The second was to learn numbers.

That's all that many religious nutters even now think education is for- while they sit behind their PCs and upload their latest additions to their hate web-sites, served by fiber optic cables and routers and satellites and thousands of servers the world over.

They hate what they can't control. They hate what they can't understand. They hate that they are losing and, losing badly on the battlefield of ideas.

They hate that it's all slipping through their slimy, ignorant fingers and there not a damned thing they can do about it.

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In colonial times there were two reasons for education.

One was to learn how to read the bible. The second was to learn numbers.

That's all that many religious nutters even now think education is for- while they sit behind their PCs and upload their latest additions to their hate web-sites, served by fiber optic cables and routers and satellites and thousands of servers the world over.

They hate what they can't control. They hate what they can't understand. They hate that they are losing and, losing badly on the battlefield of ideas.

They hate that it's all slipping through their slimy, ignorant fingers and there not a damned thing they can do about it.

BRAVO, James! What you wrote is a perfect description of what's going on in the religio-political realm.

Colin :icon_geek:

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I have found an article on Salon.com which has moved me. Edwin Lyngar, who grew up in a Nevada mining town with all the anti-education prejudices one might expect, along with the conservative political views that often accompany such prejudices, took years to complete a college education and has discovered the value of being exposed to more than simply the narrow and simplistic views of those who hate education. In his experience, he sees a similar strain among American anti-intellectualism and that of Islamic extremism and Boko Haram--which translates as "Education is Forbidden." It's an eye-opening piece that exposes the prejudice that is exploited by politicians such as Scott Walker and Rick Santorum.

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/26/the_rights_fear_of_education_what_i_learned_as_a_former_conservative_military_man/

I refer to Rick Santorum as Ayatollah Santorum. Even though the religion is different, the goals are the same. It fits, doesn't it.

Colin :icon_geek:

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This subject is extremely important.

It's not that religion alone is at fault in worshipping ignorance as a virtue. Ignorance breeds ignorance until it is aborted in favour of reality, facts and scientific knowledge.

The astrophysicists such as Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson all go to some length to explain how scientific investigation and education have provided us with the wonders of understanding the universe, the technology of computers and the internet; not to mention all the conveniences of the modern world. Google their names in YouTube and select a few of their interviews and debates on video.

Sixty years ago I often heard the disclaiming voices of those who maintained that the young were being taught things they would never need to know. That statement was wrong then and it is wrong now. Being able to adapt to the modern world, to the latest technology, is humankind's hope for the future and it is dependent on enlightening education in the spirit of scientific investigation. I have never stopped learning, changing my opinion, or being staggered by the beauty of the cosmos.

There is now, no need to assign magic as an answer to the mysteries of the universe, as our cave dweller ancestors did. We now know sufficient to simply acknowledge that we don't know everything, but we are on an odyssey of learning that may well give us the means to survive and discover more, every day that we live.

Those who ignore education in favour of extending their ignorance are indeed one of our biggest, if not the biggest, threat to our survival.

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I refer to Rick Santorum as Ayatollah Santorum.

Ah, Rick Santorum the family values candidate.

I had to air a story when I was a newscaster at Sirius OutQ, SiriusXM's LGBT channel... that Santorum - after his wife miscarried - bullied hospital staff into turning the fetus over to him... wrapped it up and took it home to educate his young kids that a fetus was a person and that abortion was wrong.

So, you see he is actually 'pro' education!

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Education--rather than indoctrination--teaches people to think critically, to ask questions, to think for themselves rather than to just blindly accept what they are told. It teaches one to make one's own decisions rather than to conform, to behave. THAT is what scares the right wing. Don't ask questions. The worst thing you can do in right-world is ask, "Why?"

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Let's face it, if the Bible and creationism isn't in the curriculum then most right wingers feel that education is a failure.

Those who speak loudest against the way education is funded are seeking vouchers to send kids to religious based schools...kinda reminds me of the Taliban. But the voucher system as it stands takes money away from the public school system which is already underfunded.

Most politicians with families have their kids in private institutions and pay little mind to the deficit found in public schools. The public system is losing qualified teachers at an alarming rate because of the laws regarding students to be tested. Teaching to the test is the worst way of educating a child I can think of, but not as bad as teaching creationism and other fictional Bible topics.

We are failing our children on a broad scale to serve the political objectives of the few. Santorum and Cruz, Perry and Jindal will create a whole new class of uneducated people, and without realizing it these uneducated won't vote which is self-defeating for these idiot politicians.

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  • 4 months later...

In spite of me being an confirmed atheist I am a huge fan of Chris Hedges. His father was an anti-war minister who fought for gay rights. Chris Hedges went to the seminary but became a foreign correspondent for the New York Times.

He claims that with the hard shift to the right or a plunge into chaos , one of the biggest dangers is the rise of political Christian authoritarianism.

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