As IF Times

Source: Prof lets students choose own grades for ‘stress reduction’

Image from Daily Mail

Now we’re getting to the root of all the vapidity that has infected society like cold sores after a party at the Playboy mansion.

The concept of education as a means of acquiring objective knowledge and enlightenment has given way to the new modern idea that it’s instead a journey of self awareness, perception and warm fuzzy feelings.   Sort of like intellectual yoga, but instead of the body being bent into unnatural shapes, it’s logic that comes out in pretzel form.

The classic joke goes that when you ask an accountant how much is the sum of 2 plus 2, a ‘good’ accountant would respond, “how much do you want it to be?”.  This idea seems to have been adopted as the model for much of today’s education as indicated in the attached link.  The notion that education is all about stress reduction and perfect rainbows is of course, personal choice.  With that being the case, the necessity of getting an education moves towards obsolescence since self actualization can be had by watching You Tube videos and segments of The View.  The problem is, these people wind up being able to vote; and when they vote in numbers, they impose their shrill and malleable fuzzy worldview upon others.

Unfortunately, the age at which people are the most impressionable are in their formative school years and during this time, the wackiest notions can be introduced as knowledge and this becomes hard wired into the students’ minds, possibly permanently.  Instead of confronting the realities of life in the search for knowledge through critical examination, a made up reality which is palatable to gentler sensibilities is instead pursued. Of course, this is a vicious cycle, because some of the newly enlightened graduates become teachers themselves; rinse and repeat.

We know instinctively that graduates from the schools of wishful thinking are likely to be only questionably competent at real life.  We can imagine the diagnoses offered by doctors educated in such a fashion.  “You are not ill sir, only bad people get ill.” Or  the work of engineers who want to build bridges spanning the Atlantic because, “it’s our right to cross the ocean by car.”  The absurdity of such examples is obvious, but the absurdity of the distortions of history are not.  There is no instant logic check on the absurdity of much of today’s worldviews as the re-writing of past events and the distortions of others attain truth status among the ‘educated’.  In fact, history is probably the most important of topics to be properly vetted because otherwise, as the saying goes, we are doomed to repeat it.

The events of the past few days in Charlottesville Virginia shows just how far down the road we are in that regard.  The entirety of the popular media has portrayed this incident as incitement by an odious racist element.  While this is notionally correct, the resulting conflagration came from bad actors on both sides of the issue.   It stretches credibility when the media characterizes the demonstrations as peaceful when attendees carried protest signs that looked remarkably like automatic weapons, bludgeons, bottles of urine, pepper spray and gas masks. Not exactly the tools of free speech.

The balkanization of society, especially by race, has been an easy target for political opportunists for a long time.  Objective studies of history will reveal this, including recent examples in Germany and China.  History tells us that statues and monuments are the beginning, not the end of cultural upheaval.  Books that aren’t in compliance with accepted thinking are the next target on the path to upending all established institutions.  When the mob supplants the rule of law, history tells us that the results are not good.  A legitimate education is supposed to move society away from those kinds of tragedies.  The kind of education that’s in vogue now only serves to produce more naïve stooges for the cultural mob.  If you listen to some of the Orwellian rhetoric coming from the product of today’s schools, you hear about immutable rights and freedoms…as long as it’s acceptable rights and freedoms.

Source: When Silicon Valley Took Over the New Republic – The Atlantic

We seldom get to see the kind of naked honesty about the present state of journalism discussed in such candor as in the linked article.  Of course this will be a shock to those that have their worldview shaped by Facebook news or for that matter, many of the popular news outlets.  In the parlance of phone email services, the trends are all about push news, not pull news.  In other words, you don’t look for news; news is pushed onto you.

I have extensively pointed out the sinister creep of push news for years, starting with of course, my favorite, Climate Change, tactfully re- branded from Global Warming.  Given the recent inconvenient publicity that Al Gore has received once again by the supportive media, we are expected to believe that his discredited bleats are in the forefront of the average person’s consciousness.  The first fantasy movie that he produced was such a success, that apparently, people are waiting in rapt anticipation for his newly released sequel…well, at least those that didn’t sell everything and are hunkered in the mountains waiting for high tide Armageddon.

That Gore continues to attract the media spotlight is amazing until you consider all of the other annoying spam that gets media exposure…like a staph infection that won’t go away. I refer to regular revelations of the Kardashian Clan, the Jenners, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, etc etc.  On a too often basis, we get the most recent Michael Moore utterance.  If you believe the media, at this very moment, the life of Diana has suddenly attained must know status for people.  Diana.  She’s been dead for 20 years!  Yet the entire media are splashing headlines about her as if she just had breakfast.  You know the tabloids are running out of ideas if they revive a long dead story to get clicks.  Next in line; is JFK really dead?

Most people don’t even know that they are the victims of push news.  The effectiveness of modern push media is such that confirmation bias is rampant among much of the populace. If your peer group confirms the same worldview based on their sources of news, then an entire fake reality becomes real…without anyone knowing why.  They’ve become parrots who regurgitate what’s been repeatedly heard.  Let me say this: if climate change is really the number one concern among your peer group, you may have been co-opted by push news.  If you think transgender bathroom issues are at the top of society’s concerns, you may need to expand your news sources.  Do people really think Russia, Russia, Russia is a valid news thread?  The linked article confirms what many have known for years and perhaps many more are awakening to:  News is no longer news. It’s structured to get the most clicks.  It’s a business…with a world of unwitting customers.