The Great American Dumb-Down

 

Photo By Roman Eisele - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87283346

MISEDUCATION

There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It’s the dismissal of science, of the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility. –Ray Williams, Wired for Success article July 07, 2014

The Texas Senate is pushing for the enforcement of its legislator’s preferred religion on the state’s children by requiring that the Christian scripture’s Ten Commandments be to be displayed in public schools. Senate Bill 10 passed on a 20-1 vote along party lines. Earlier. Senate Bill 11, allowing students to take time from the serious work of study to pray- a form of wishful thinking- to infringe on the three Rs. The bill ignored the fact that students are allowed to pray without the Senate’s input; they just cannot be guided or forced into the ritual by school staff. The dumb-down crowd pushing for a Taliban-like enforcement of their beliefs will not likely stop at mere displays and private time.

With the sweeping victory of Donald Trump into the White House and his party taking majorities in the nation’s senate and House of Representatives, such extreme politics have become the norm, not the exception. We can expect to see further bills from more conservative states introducing similar measures if the Texas effort succeeds and, being that it is Texas that those states will emulate, we can count on an authoritarian frenzy to sweep all but the most scientifically literate locales.

The United State has a long history of such attempts to dumb down the citizenry. Early in our history, Congress rejected George Washington’s proposal for a national university because it might offend the dominance of Christian universities in the nation’s educational system, ¹ thus beginning America’s long flirtation with what journalist Charles P. Pierce called’’ “Idiot America.”² The drive to force a bronze-age knowledge system onto the public, combined with the undercurrent of anti-intellectualism that rises to the surface with alarming frequency and driven with doctrinal Christianity’s obsessive need to force it’s dogmatic beliefs onto the world go back in U.S. history at least to the time of the First Great Awakening that captured the fledging nation between the 1730s and the 1770s. Christine Leigh Heyrman at the National Humanities Center writes: “Throughout the colonies, conservative and moderate clergymen questioned the emotionalism of evangelicals and charged that disorder and discord attended the revivals.”³ Now, some 275 years later, those conservatives embrace the very emotion over intellect they once rejected as a necessary component of political ideology. “Facts don’t care about your feelings,” someone once said, with feeling.

Look into any talk radio program, read any social media meme promoting far-right propaganda (and some from the left-- those devious libtards are waking up) and you will find appeals to emotion; Outrage, anger, revenge, hate… One might search for days without seeing a single message designed to stir the intellect.

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” ― Isaac Asimov

Thomas Jefferson “was the first distinguished victim of a decisively anti-intellectual attack, and the assault on him (leveled principally by Federalist leaders and members of the established clergy) set a precedent for subsequent efforts to render an active, curious mind either trivial and ridiculous or evil and dangerous...The capacity for reflective, creative, and critical thought, finely honed argumentation, and public persuasion—talents one might other­wise assume well recommend a candidate for the office of president—were transformed into the gravest of liabilities.”⁴

 

A highly influential, if not seminal, work by Richard Hofstadter, defined anti-intellectualism as: “a resentment and suspicion of the life of the mind and of those who are considered to represent it; and a disposition constantly to minimize the value of that life”.

By that definition, anti-intellectualism has reached a fever pitch in modern American life. Consider that…

•     One-third of Americans believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. “Nearly 6 in 10 believe that the bloody predictions of the Book of Revelations—which involve the massacre of everyone who does not accept Jesus as the Messiah—will come true.”¹
  
•     Two-thirds of Americans want creationism taught alongside of evolution in public schools.
•     Forty-eight percent accept any form of evolution—even theistic evolution.
•     Twenty-six percent accept Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
•     An astounding 42 percent believe all life has existed in their present form since the beginning of time.^{1a. 5.}

Those numbers a scary, but they are not the whole story. Though it appears that Americans are prone to magical thinking based on a particular religion as expressed in a particular sacred text, yet “A majority of American adults…cannot name the four Gospels or identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible.^1b

A 1998 study from the University of Texas found that one-fourth of public-school biology teachers believe that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the earth at the same time. Be afraid for our public-school students. Be very afraid.

The battle to keep knowledge and not opinion and belief in the public’s perception of reality was aptly addressed by Pastor Ray Mummert: “We’ve been attacked by the intelligent, uneducated segment of our culture.”^2.

Given that he thought he was attacking intellectualism, he likely did not think his message through.

The really surprising thing about Intelligent Design (ID) theorists is that they miss the larger point about explanation, which is that to explain something by invoking something itself unexplained is to provide no explanation at all ^6.

American media is replete with such campaigns to malign intelligence and expertise, but we cannot lay the blame entirely on religion for the persistence of anti-intellectualism in America. The political system has contributed more than its share of efforts to dumb down the populace.

 

JUNK SCIENCE

Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was a Soviet agronomist who developed a pseudo-science based on Lamarckism, defined bybritannica.com as “a theory of evolution based on the principle that physical changes in organisms during their lifetime…could be transmitted to their offspring.” The term has come to signify the suppression of or refusal to acknowledge, science for ideological reasons,⁷ such as that of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his fellow conspiracy theorists.

A recent study is reportedly held up by Kennedy and conspiracy theory mongers as revealing a link between vaccines and autism. That study, The study “Vaccination and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Study of Nine-Year-Old Children Enrolled in Medicaid” does not show a relationship between vaccines and autism, regardless of Mr. Kennedy’s claims to the contrary. The study has a long list of flaws as documented by the American Council on Science and Health⁸, and the publisher of the study, itself, faces criticism across the world wide web as a fake science blog, and not a scientific journal—although, in fairness, there exists a number of sites praising the publisher, the "Science, Public Health Policy, and the Law."^9.

A few micro-incidents that sought to stupefy the American public:

·         George W. Bushe’s favorite climate “expert,” novelist Michael Crichton. Left a legacy for the delight of conspiracy theorists on the level of RFK’s vaccine disinformation drive.¹⁰ His climate change denial still resonates with the “alternate facts” set, twenty-two years later.

·         America’s disconnect with reality was on full view when an untold number believed that the Democratic Party ran a child-trafficking ring out of a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. Such is the state of the nation’s critical thinking capabilities. Elon Musk widened the gap between reality and the gullible set when he revived the story in late 2023,¹¹ proving once again that the wealthy are not smarter than you; only luckier.

·         The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines "factoid" as "1: an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print. 2: a briefly stated and usually trivial fact. Here, that definition is expanded to, a fact stripped of all nuance and context. Factoids are not usually used in the media, but they are effective in use among friends, relatives, and associates. In this sense, factoids are intended to produce specific inferences. Someone might tell you, in reference to undocumented immigrants sent to New York City, “The government gives illegal immigrants in New York City free luxury hotel rooms and credit cards. Credit cards!”

You are supposed to imagine hundreds of immigrants bound for El Salvador living in the Waldorf Astoria while shopping with their government-issued Platinum American Express cards. But you know that New York City has contracts with area hotels to hold several rooms for official visitors. It cost less to house immigrants there than to lease rooms anew. And those credit cards? Limited to use for food and baby supplies only. Your conspiracy-minded uncle neglected to divulge that part as it didn’t serve his narrative. That, or he was merely disinformed.

In that event, he was in large company.

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Bibliography

1. Susan Jacoby, The Age of American Unreason (Pantheon Books, 2008) 18

1a. Jacoby, The Age of American Unreason, 22-23

1b. Jacoby, The Age of American Unreason, 25

2. Charles P. Pierce, Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free (Anchor Books, 2010)

3. Christine Leigh Heyrman, Department of History, University of Delaware, “The First Great Awakening,” ©National Humanities Center, Accessed April 22, 2025, https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/grawaken.htm

4. Susan Searls Giroux , “Between Race and Reason: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life,” Stanford University Press, September 16, 2011, https://truthout.org/articles/between-race-and-reason-antiintellectualism-in-american-life/

5. “Public’s Views on Human Evolution,” Pew Research Center, December 30, 2013, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/

5a. “Public Divided on Origins of Life: Religion A Strength and Weakness for Both Parties,” Pew Research Center, August 30, 2005, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2005/08/30/public-divided-on-origins-of-life/

6. A.C. Grayling, The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism (Bloomsbury, 2014) 111

7. Chris Mooney, The Republican War on Science (Basic Books, 2005) p.12

8. Junk Science, Bought and Paid For: The Latest Anti-Vaccine ‘Study’ is a Political Stunt, By Andrea Love, Ph.D. and Katie Suleta — Feb 07, 2025, https://www.acsh.org/news/2025/02/07/junk-science-bought-and-paid-latest-anti-vaccine-study-political-stunt-49291

9. Science, Public Health Policy & the Law – Bias and Credibility, "Overall, we rate Science, Public Health Policy & the Law as a pseudoscience source based on the frequent publication of vaccine misinformation to promote vaccine hesitancy. We also rate them Low for factual reporting due to false claims and inappropriate claims of being peer-reviewed." https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/science-public-health-policy-the-law-bias-and-credibility/

10. Michael Crichton, author of State of Fear, leaves global warming disinformation legacy, https://whistleblower.org/politicization-of-climate-science/global-warming-denial-machine/michael-crichton-author-of-state-of-fear-leaves-global-warming-disinformation-legacy/

11. Philip Marcelo, “Elon Musk and others spread meme reviving unfounded ‘pizzagate’ conspiracy theory,” November 29, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-pizzagate-conspiracy-elon-musk-abc-657657139374

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The Great American Dumb-Down

 

Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash

“For what a man had rather were true, he more readily believes.” — Francis Bacon

“Because it takes nothing on faith, science is inherently antiauthoritarian, and a great equalizer of political power. That is why it is under attack.” -Shawn Otto, The War on Science, p. 41, Minneapolis (2016 )

So-called “pro-lifers” view the “ball of about one hundred fifty cells constituting a five-day-old embryo as deserving of the same moral and legal protections as fully developed human beings.” Chris Mooney, The Republican War on Science, New York (2005), p.2

The Florida Board of Education Chair said in 2019 that he “won’t support any evolution being taught as fact at all in any of our schools.” https://churchandstate.org.uk/2019/08/new-florida-board-of-education-chair-i-wont-support-any-evolution-being-taught-as-fact-at-all-in-any-of-our-schools/

The March 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores decision by the Supreme Court ruled that three kinds of pills are abortifacients that are not, in fact, abortifacients. The scientific definition of pregnancy that was adopted by the federal government states that pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg is implanted in the uterine wall. Religions define pregnancy as occurring when an egg is fertilized. Many eggs are flushed naturally. Is nature (or “God”) performing abortions? The court sided with Hobby Lobby even though the ruling was contraindicated by federal regulations and the scientific definition. — Shawn Otto, The War on Science, Minneapolis (2016)

More than a third of Florida’s New College teachers will not return for the 2023 Fall semester due to the governor’s “Dumb-Down” policies affecting the school. https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/07/18/new-college-florida-ridiculously-high-number-faculty-are-gone/

“15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense”
“Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don’t hold up.
By John Rennie on July 1, 2002
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/15-answers-to-creationist/

That is a tiny sample of a large list of stories about the anti-intellectualist movement in the United States about efforts to restrict knowledge in the American population. As the U.S. continues to embrace policies that refute science, reason, and logical analysis, we can expect another nation or other nations to pick up the slack. In that event, America will become just another second- or third-world country fighting for survival in a world that finds it irrelevant.

My interest in the dumbing down of my country began sometime prior to 1957 when I was a pre-teen. In that year the Red Scare created in large part by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Unamerican Activities Committee fizzled to an end. but long before that, the curiosity of a child led me to a pursuit of knowledge not based on magic, superstition, or opinion. I wanted to know.

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A man in a red suit stood on a roof, Standing next to the chimney and waving to the crowd of holiday spectators below. My parents had driven my brother and me across town to see the Christmas lights and Santa and his magic reindeer. Santa didn’t go down the chimney, he only waved and ho-ho-hoed at the crowd below. It was the reindeer that held my attention, though. They didn’t move. And they glowed by a light within. I realized that the deer were plastic, and that Santa was never going to go down the chimney because he was too big and his red suit was too clean. It’s all fake, I told myself.

I continued to feign belief in Santa for the goodies it got me on Christmas morning, but I had become convinced that Santa was a story made up by adults to entertain kids. Disbelief in Santa soon led to skepticism about elves and fairies and unicorns. By the time I entered high school, I was aware that magic men did not walk on water, donkeys didn’t talk, kangaroos didn’t migrate from Australia to Israel to hop a boat, and stories of zombies and walking dead were…well, stories. Those tales led to a love of literature and reading the Bible resulted in a love of poetry. But even a child can be skeptical of extravagant claims, even those made in so-called “holy” books.

An adult told me that God punishes non-believers by torturing them an eternity. An authority figure who I respected attempted to indoctrinate me into religion with some Christian dogma so obviously fallacious that even a post-toddler saw through it. Then, a third-grade teacher refuted the school’s science book by telling the class that condensation and evaporation did not exist; God made the rain, she said. Later, a senior warrant officer demanded that I formally deny my atheism or receive a court-martial and a dishonorable discharge. I believed him. I learned later that his threat was illegal. I had grounds for a lawsuit against the US Navy.

A thread of anti-intelligence weaved through those experiences, and others. Each demanded that I suspend reason and accept their demands for belief or face certain punishment. Each demanded that I suspend intellect to accept the speaker’s version of reality on faith- that is, on opinion and indoctrination. The lessons I learned in my science books made sense; I could grasp the concepts and the reasoning behind the claims. I struggled to believe the stories about a magic man who lived in the sky, who created humans by speaking them into existence, and who would consign me to a burning pit of fire forever if I questioned that story. Now, in the age of a resurgence of 1930s-style of fascism, anti-intelligence legislation rolls out of Washington, D.C., and American state capitals with metronymic frequency.

The leap into the denial of the existence of supernatural beings was automatic. It lay in waiting from the moment that I realized those plastic reindeer weren’t real.

I turn first to the Wikipedia web site and its citations first when seeking definitions. The opening segment of the “Intellectualism” page reads: “Intellectualism is the mental perspective that emphasizes the use, the development, and the exercise of the intellect; and also identifies the life of the mind of the intellectual person. In the field of philosophy, the term intellectualism is synonymous with rationalism, knowledge derived from reason.

My concern is not with those “who scorn intellectuals, but those who hold in contempt formal education, critical thinking, and intelligence in favor of magical thinking. It is magical thinking above all in my experience that has pushed the United States down to such levels of anti-intellect that our leaders (and I use the term loosely) are too often represented by the likes of James Inhofe, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, and Antonin Scalia, where they could use their fundamentalist (and therefore, unthinking) religion to force American laws into line with their unscientific, irrational and uninformed opinions. We are told we must teach children a creationist view of science disguised as “Intelligent Design,” and that our religion requires us to enact laws that dictate the control the bodily autonomy of women. Christianity forces itself on Americans with totalitarian authority in its passage and enforcement of anti-abortion laws by citing the Bible as a source of the “abortion is murder” meme. That, of course, raises the question: why do we give a flying frog what the Bible says?

Religion IS anti-intellectualism. But we all hold beliefs and opinions that run counter to the rules of reason and logic. So, is the belief in a supreme being so bad?

Well, yes, it is when you work to force those beliefs and opinions on others through the power of legislation and the courts. The separation of church and state does more to keep society sane and in search of truth than any magic man in the clouds could do.

Fundamentalist religion is not alone in its drive to dumb down Americans. The current batch of legislation from around the country reveals a white supremacy strain in the teaching of American history. Educators are told that they cannot teach the role of blacks in America’s past through the contents of Critical Race Theory and books like Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project. The anti-intelligence faction believes (that is, of the opinion) that truth is what consensus believes. Are so concerned with the feelings of a few delicate sensibilities that we will deny our own history?

We can only engage in the uncharitable and un-Christian hope that the rest of the world is engaged in the same Dumbing Down process as America has embraced. Otherwise, we might well see third world nations outpace us in scientific advances. Is that the fate the holders of power in Washington wish for us? It certainly seems so, doesn’t it?

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Suggested Reading:

Forrest, Barbara & Gross, Paul R. Creationism’s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design. Oxford, 2004.

Freeman, Charles. The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason. Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

Hofstadter, Richard. Intellectualism in American Life. Vintage, 1963.

Jacoby, Susan. Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. Metropolitan, 2004.

Jacoby, Susan. The Age of American Unreason. Pantheon, 2008.

Levitin, Daniel J. Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era. Dutton, 2017

Mooney, Chris & Kirshenbaum, Sheril. Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future. Basic, 2009.

Otto, Shawn. The War on Science: Who’s Waging it and Why it Matters. Milkweed Productions, 2016.

Specter, Michael. Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. Penguin, 2009.

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